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

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

Early on, I kept a running tally of the hours until that began to feel naive.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

The VIX was on track to finish at around 15.66 on Tuesday, a notably low level considering that the S&P 500 was set to tally a third straight day of losses.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026

Being a tally messenger was a highly coveted position.

From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly

Second, the ITC tallies Iran's exports using mostly the import numbers reported by its trading partners - owing to the difficulty in getting up to date export data from Iran.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

Sometimes, before the daily tallies that occurred to ensure all inmates were accounted for, they would jokingly call out, “It’s count time, guys—go ahead and hide your cellphones.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

That isn’t to say Microsoft isn’t raking in cash: the company’s most recent earnings report tallies nearly $32 billion in net income in the last fiscal year.

From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026

Experts are urging patience as primary tallies begin to roll in Tuesday evening.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 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

The consensus profits tallied by Wall Street analysts, often called “Street earnings,” typically exist to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Based on Leuthold’s research, when margin growth has reached the highest decile relative to history, the S&P 500 has tallied an average 12-month drop of 0.5% on a forward basis.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026

He even accepted defeat before the final votes were tallied.

From "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba

Mundubile, who trailed behind with 38%, plans to challenge the outcome in court after alleging the tallying process had been tampered with.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

“Fed watching has now become vote tallying, understanding the stance of each voter,” Bianco said.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 25, 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

“But when it comes to tallying votes in an election, that’s just a drop in the bucket.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2026

When tallying numbers, the Babylonians arranged them into columns, as children learn to do today.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Related Words

• itemize
• register
• write down