total
Americanadjective
-
constituting or comprising the whole; entire; whole.
the total expenditure.
- Synonyms:
- complete
-
of or relating to the whole of something.
the total effect of a play.
-
complete in extent or degree; absolute; unqualified; utter.
a total failure.
-
involving all aspects, elements, participants, resources, etc.; unqualified; all-out.
total war.
noun
-
totals
plural
verb (used with object)
-
totals,
present (3rd person singular)
-
totaled,
past participle, past
-
totalled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
totaling,
present participle
-
totalling
present participle (especially British)
-
to bring to a total; add up.
-
to reach a total of; amount to.
-
Slang. to wreck or demolish completely.
He totaled his new car in the accident.
verb (used without object)
-
totals,
present (3rd person singular)
-
totaled,
past participle, past
-
totalled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
totaling,
present participle
-
totalling
present participle (especially British)
noun
adjective
-
complete; absolute
the evening was a total failure
a total eclipse
-
(prenominal) being or related to a total
the total number of passengers
verb
-
to amount
to total six pounds
-
(tr) to add up
to total a list of prices
-
slang (tr) to kill or badly injure (someone)
-
(tr) to damage (a vehicle) beyond repair
Usage
What does total mean? Total describes the wholeness or entirety of something, like the total amount of cake you ate last night. If you ate the total cake, you ate the entire cake (and might have felt sick afterward!). Total describes the breadth of something either physically or conceptually. For example, your total order describes all the items in your purchase. While if you’re a total success, you are completely successful. A total is the complete amount or sum. The total on your restaurant bill is the entire amount of money you owe for your meal. A total can also be the entirety of something. The total of your book collection would be all the books you own, and the total of your sports equipment is all the equipment you own. Finally, to total is to add up (to total your bill) or to reach an amount, as in The bill totalled up to $56. 75. Example: The total on the bill is higher than I expected because I forgot about sales tax.
Synonym Usage
See whole.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
supertotalnoun
-
retotalverb (used with object)
-
quasi-totaladjective
-
untotaledadjective
-
untotalledadjective
-
quasi-totallyadverb
-
totallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
totalsimple
-
totalssimple
-
have totaledperfect
-
have totalledperfect
-
has totaledperfect
-
has totalledperfect
-
am totalingprogressive
-
am totallingprogressive
-
are totalingprogressive
-
are totallingprogressive
-
is totalingprogressive
-
is totallingprogressive
-
have been totalingperfect progressive
-
have been totallingperfect progressive
-
has been totalingperfect progressive
-
has been totallingperfect progressive
Past
-
totaledsimple
-
totalledsimple
-
had totaledperfect
-
had totalledperfect
-
was totalingprogressive
-
was totallingprogressive
-
were totalingprogressive
-
were totallingprogressive
-
had been totalingperfect progressive
-
had been totallingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of total
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English (adjective), from Medieval Latin tōtālis , equivalent to Latin tōt(us) “entire” + -ālis -al 1
Explanation
There are many meanings of total, but they all have something to do with completeness. A total is a whole or complete amount, and "to total" is to add numbers or to destroy something. In math, you total numbers by adding them: the result is the total. If you add 8 and 8, the total is 16. If a car is totaled in an accident, it has been completely destroyed. A total defeat is a complete and utter defeat with no chance of recovering. The total resources of a company are all its resources, everything it has.
Vocabulary lists containing total
Eclipse Vocabulary
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Measurement and Data, List 1
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Operations and Algebraic Thinking
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Those percentages add up to about 6,600 transgender or nonbinary students enrolled out of a total of 301,000.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
BofA strategists now forecast well over $300 billion in total debt issuance this year from Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
The spur-of-the-moment trip was unlike her: Timby, 39, is a self-described "total planner".
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Meanwhile, their total market capitalizations range from around $55 billion for Marubeni to about $115 billion for Mitsubishi, according to FactSet.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
The most hated firm on Wall Street, famous mainly for its total indifference to the good opinion of its competitors, Eisman identified with the place!
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
CPL shared the post on Instagram, where other patrons began volunteering their totals in the comments — a spontaneous little leaderboard for people whose competitive edge expresses itself through returning DVDs on time.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026
Garreaud said precipitation totals reached levels "rarely seen in the otherwise extremely arid region."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 1, 2026
The totals are not definitive and could yet rise.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
In terms of cumulative volume breadth, both “stocks only” totals reached new all-time highs yesterday, so that is a bullish sign.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
Now take a look at the last column, which totals up all the summer gains from first grade to fifth grade.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
The watchdog's report also notes that equipment losses have totaled $3.7bn, with other $7.4bn in other expenditures.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
In the second quarter, hardship withdrawals totaled 3%, which is an increase from 2.6% a year ago, Fidelity said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026
Continuing claims, which scale with the total size of the unemployed population, totaled just under 1.78 million in the week through August 15, climbing 8,000 from the downwardly revised total a week earlier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
At the time, prosecutors said he had defrauded about 28 victims and that the fraud totaled about $993,000.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
The clerk, apparently, was not of that opinion, for he produced a blank check, and when Dick made it out for eighty dollars more than the bill totaled, instantly paid over the difference in cash.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
The deficit during the first six months of this fiscal year totalled $1.2 trillion, which is $139 billion less than the same period last year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
When a so-called "risk-adjusted" backlog is totalled up for all NHS buildings in Wales - which focuses on major problems where safety could be at risk - the bill comes to more than £1bn.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2026
Trade in goods alone totalled about $976bn in 2024.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026
Meta was quick to note that compensatory damages in the Los Angeles case totalled just $3 million, with a further $3 million in punitive damages awarded by the jury Wednesday.
From Barron's ● Mar. 25, 2026
In the six years 1901-6 the exports of frozen meat from Australia totalled 353,514,135 lb. of beef and 371,692,090 lb. of mutton.
From Our First Half-Century: A Review of Queensland Progress Based Upon Official Information by Queensland
Through acquisitions of other tech firms, the company has assembled a portfolio of 17 owned properties totaling more than 2.2 million square feet, according to CoStar data.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
His state financial disclosure for 2001 listed assets totaling no more than $170,000, a ProPublica and Tribune analysis found.
From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2026
The company expects to receive refunds totaling $247.1 million, which it’s using to offset higher costs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
“He ingratiated himself knowing that one day, he could use that information to defraud clients of thousands of dollars, eventually totaling in the millions,” Savery said Monday in a Santa Ana courtroom.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
Thus I have created an opportunity for Lambert to earn back everything I took from the city—a fortune totaling $40 million at my last reckoning.
From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson
Only six female jockeys have had rides in British Classics in 250 years, totalling 12 rides, according to the National Horseracing Museum.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
They also say those convicted have been jailed for sentences totalling 118 years and 22 migrant criminals were deported as a result of their offences.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
More than 60% — totalling an estimated 3,633 homeless people — live within a mile of downtown venues and face possible expulsion, the report said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
Before the war, trade between Kuwait and Iran was robust, totalling roughly $300 million in 2024, according to Kuwaiti media citing the two countries' joint chamber of commerce.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
Placing the Document in an index took two clerks an hour each, totalling $43.
From The Hacker Crackdown, law and disorder on the electronic frontier by Bruce Sterling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
