subtotal

American

[suhb-toht-l, suhb-toht-] / ˈsʌbˌtoʊt l, sʌbˈtoʊt- /

noun

the sum or total of a part of a group or column of figures, as in an accounting statement.

adjective

somewhat less than complete; not total.

subtotal commitment.

verb (used with object)

to determine a subtotal for, as figures.

verb (used without object)

to determine a subtotal.

subtotal British

/ sʌbˈtəʊtəl, ˈsʌbˌtəʊtəl /

noun

the total made up by a column of figures, etc, forming part of the total made up by a larger column or group

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

to establish or work out a subtotal for (a column, group, etc)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

subtotals

plural

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of subtotal

First recorded in 1905–10; sub- + total

Explanation

When you're adding a list of numbers, the subtotal is what you get after adding some (but not all) of them. If you order a few pairs of socks online, your subtotal is the cost of the socks before tax or shipping costs are added. And if you're tallying up the number of doughnuts you've seen your brother eat in a week, you might get 10 as a subtotal before adding the final two he eats on Saturday. Subtotal adds the "under" or "almost" prefix sub- to total, from the Latin tōtus, "all, whole, entire."

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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:

subtotal subtotals subtotaled

Kate Dyson, 44, from Hastings, underwent the surgery six months ago after having a subtotal hysterectomy just over four years ago to remove her uterus - a procedure which leaves the cervix in place.

From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2025

Martin’s order came to a subtotal of $25.40 and included:

From Washington Post ● Oct. 13, 2022

Airbnb says most guests pay less than 14.2 percent of the booking subtotal as its service fee.

From New York Times ● Dec. 28, 2021

There's no guideline, but general etiquette dictates calculating the 18 to 20 percent from the pretax subtotal.

From Chicago Tribune ● Sep. 10, 2014

The subtotal is less than one-fifth of the Kansan avifauna, but it represents 72 per cent of the grassland birds of North America; grassland habitats abound in Kansas.

From The Breeding Birds of Kansas by Richard F. Johnston

Gogol adds up the subtotals on each page.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Emphasizing that, the set design by Eugene Lee and Keith Raywood featured on the theater’s walls a running list of the names of the dead, along with the mounting death toll, subtotaled by state.

From New York Times ● Feb. 26, 2018

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023