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

Defenders Lucy Bronze, Jess Carter and Maya le Tissier have all netted in the past 18 months, while England's number nine has added six to the tally.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

This week, biotechs TRex Bio and Retension Pharmaceuticals expect to add to the year’s IPO tally.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

It’s unclear how many people are affected, but in July, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that an accurate tally would “far exceed” the CDC’s 2022 estimate of 450,000 Americans.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026

Her tally, listed on the independent news website Twala, external, puts the death toll at 200.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

Confronted with this tally, my mind balked and retreated into a weird, almost robotic state of detachment.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

While official results weren’t available, tallies posted by Fain’s campaign showed his garnering about 68% of the vote as of Friday afternoon.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

This tallies with what has been experienced by female coaches for years - while opportunities are increasing at the top level, for most there has been little change.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

There were mighty blunders off the field too under Jarmond, including an email that went out to donors that came with an attachment revealing personal information and spending tallies of the department’s biggest donors.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

Pernod Ricard’s more downbeat sales guidance for the coming years tallies with Diageo’s own “prudent” sales-growth expectations, James Edwardes Jones at RBC Capital Markets wrote in a note following the update.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

Unlike football bowls, there had been no season tallies for the academic teams.

From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg

At a game this spring, he said, he tallied “like $7,500 worth of baseball bats in our dugout.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

Since the start of this year, Yemen has tallied nearly 8,000 suspected cholera cases, including 22 deaths, and more than 9,600 dengue cases, including 37 people who had died, according to the WHO.

From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026

At those events, Kerr is directly representing his country - there are national medal tables in which the triumphs achieved by compatriots are tallied up together.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

He tallied only two hits in the six games before Roberts sat him.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026

He didn’t try to count, but the numbers automatically tallied up in his head.

From "Gregor the Overlander" by Suzanne Collins

New York immediately pounced, tallying eight runs after Gray exited en route to a 9-2 win that ended Boston’s season.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

In 1862 there was no accurate tallying, but in a state of 400,000 people, as many as 4,000 may have died.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

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

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

As Riches signed off Sunday, he thanked his fans for tallying a million views that day.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

The early Greeks, for instance, used the word "fiving" to describe the process of tallying.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

Related Words

• itemize
• register
• write down