tally

American  

[tal-ee] / ˈtæl i /

noun

• tallies
  plural

1. an account or reckoning; a record of debit and credit, of the score of a game, or the like.

   Synonyms:

   enumeration, count, inventory

2. Also called tally stick.  a stick of wood with notches cut to indicate the amount of a debt or payment, often split lengthwise across the notches, the debtor retaining one piece and the creditor the other.

3. anything on which a score or account is kept.

4. a notch or mark made on or in a tally.

5. a number or group of items recorded.

6. a mark made to register a certain number of items, as four consecutive vertical lines with a diagonal line through them to indicate a group of five.

7. a number of objects serving as a unit of computation.

8. a ticket, label, or mark used as a means of identification, classification, etc.

9. anything corresponding to another thing as a counterpart or duplicate.

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verb (used with object)

• tallies,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tallied,
  past participle,  past
• tallying
  present participle

1. to mark or enter on a tally; register; record.

   Synonyms:

   list, enroll

2. to count or reckon up.

   Synonyms:

   calculate, enumerate

3. to furnish with a tally or identifying label.

4. to cause to correspond or agree.

verb (used without object)

• tallies,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tallied,
  past participle,  past
• tallying
  present participle

1. to correspond, as one part of a tally with the other; accord or agree.

   Does his story tally with hers?

2. to score a point or make a goal, as in a game.

tally British  

/ ˈtælɪ /

verb

1. (intr) to correspond one with the other

   the two stories don't tally

2. (tr) to supply with an identifying tag

3. (intr) to keep score

4. obsolete (tr) to record or mark

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noun

1. any record of debit, credit, the score in a game, etc

2. a ticket, label, or mark, used as a means of identification, classification, etc

3. a counterpart or duplicate of something, such as the counterfoil of a cheque

4. a stick used (esp formerly) as a record of the amount of a debt according to the notches cut in it

5. a notch or mark cut in or made on such a stick

6. a mark or number of marks used to represent a certain number in counting

7. the total number of sheep shorn by one shearer in a specified period of time

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• retally
  noun
• tallier
  noun
• untallied
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tallies
  plural

Participles

• tallying
  present
• tallied
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• tally
  simple
• tallies
  simple
• have tallied
  perfect
• has tallied
  perfect
• am tallying
  progressive
• are tallying
  progressive
• is tallying
  progressive
• have been tallying
  perfect progressive
• has been tallying
  perfect progressive

Past

• tallied
  simple
• had tallied
  perfect
• was tallying
  progressive
• were tallying
  progressive
• had been tallying
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tally
  simple
• will have tallied
  perfect
• will be tallying
  progressive
• will have been tallying
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of tally

1275–1325; (noun) Middle English taly < Medieval Latin talia, variant of Latin tālea rod, cutting, literally, heel-piece, derivative of tālus heel; (v.) late Middle English talyen, derivative of the noun

Explanation

A tally is a continuous count of something, like the number of words in a document, or the number of favors your best friend owes you. To tally is to add up, like keeping the score of a game. The word tally has to do with counting. It comes from the Latin word for “stick” because people used to keep a tally by marking a stick. Tally can be the total, or the act of adding it all up. If you count the bikers riding by, your count is a tally. As a verb, tally is used for keeping score. Two friends playing basketball need to tally the points after each basket so they don't lose track.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tally tallies tallied tallying

European Union observers said staff in many tallying centres did not record results on tally sheets as soon as they were announced and cited weak verification between digital entries and paper records.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

The BLS update was derived by crosschecking prior monthly employment estimates with business tax records to get a more precise tally of how many new jobs were created.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026

In its second situation update posted on X, the Nepal Tourism Board gave a tally of 384 missing travellers, 291 of them non-Nepalis.

From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026

Statistics Canada’s early tally of wholesale receipts points to a 0.6% decline in sales in July from the month before.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

From August 13 through 18, his journal records nothing beyond a tally of the days.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

The report tallies symptoms and the diagnosis of 1,306 patients who were treated at mobile clinics during a roughly six-week period after the fire started June 17.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

Since moving to Germany, Kane's numbers have gone stratospheric, besting Haaland's goal tallies every season and establishing himself as a frontrunner in the race for the Ballon d'Or.

From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026

Despite our effort, it is possible some capital cases may still be included in our final tallies before the 2017 term.

From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026

The companies also coordinated off-exchange egg trades at premium prices, which were submitted to the middleman that tallies the benchmark price.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

Some bridge tallies with tassels on them, two pairs of white kid gloves.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

Five of the 226 constituencies had not been tallied, she said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026

Forty-six of the cases tallied by The Post involved Flock equipment.

From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026

Principal said it tallied its Egan-Jones rated debt slightly differently from the Journal and came up with a total of $1.7 billion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Measures of correlation within the S&P 500 fell to their lowest levels in years as individual stocks tallied big swings, often moving in different directions from the broader market.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026

Ryan collected the votes and Kayla tallied them.

From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott

Election observers said that while polling day was largely peaceful, some have raised questions about the vote tallying process.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

European Union observers said staff in many tallying centres did not record results on tally sheets as soon as they were announced and cited weak verification between digital entries and paper records.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

Loverde suggests tallying your current and future living expenses as you explore a move.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 12, 2026

Auditors are often tasked with traveling to the middle of nowhere and tallying up a large amount of unusual things, from chickens and pigs to quarry rocks, corn, traffic lights and telephone poles.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026

He’s tallying up the scores again—and again he has the lowest score so far.

From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez

Related Words

• itemize
• register
• write down