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:
The Boilermakers had 488 total yards, with Ryan Browne completing 19 of 30 passes for 378 yards, with three touchdowns and an interception.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 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
And Anthony's simple header from a corner took this season's total to five.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
“Even if growth in data center decelerates slightly next year,” the analysts said Texas Instruments’ total revenue should be able to grow by about 20%.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
When he returned, he explained that the large whiteboards listed a running total for each contestant.
From "Caterpillar Summer" by Gillian McDunn
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 Middle East oil companies are also moving more oil to the Red Sea through pipelines, further expanding their export totals.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
The totals are not definitive and could yet rise.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
The number of black holes may well be greater even than the number of visible stars, which totals about a hundred thousand million in our galaxy alone.
From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking
On some of those days, new lows have totaled well over 300 issues.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
The job funded her first solo apartment in MacArthur Park, but an insurance payout from a totaled car ultimately gave her the financial runway to leave sales behind and focus solely on music.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
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
Traffic rose steadily during the quarter, reaching 5 million passengers in June, from 3.5 million in April—a 43% increase—while first-half traffic totaled 31.5 million, down 31.3% from a year earlier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
By i860 the rewards offered for her capture totaled sixty thousand dollars.
From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry
In the capital Havana, power outages totalled more than 30 hours at a time, while in the outlying provinces, it was several days before electricity was restored.
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026
Sooryavanshi's individual prize money totalled more than £30,000.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
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
The missile business for U.S. prime contractors totalled about $30 billion in 2025, per Lockheed Martin.
From Barron's ● Mar. 25, 2026
On one page were noted excellences, on the other defects, and when the two columns were totalled the debtor and creditor side of the transaction was set forth.
From Thomas Carlyle Famous Scots Series by Hector Carsewell Macpherson
UC’s fall 2025 enrollment records list 0.3% of students as transgender men, 0.2% as transgender women and 1.7% as nonbinary, totaling about 2.2% of students.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
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
Dixon said Advent’s global reach, with assets under management totaling $94 billion, allowed it to build a pipeline of opportunities that it typically worked on for up to 18 months before closing a transaction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
My brain is humming like a cash register, totaling it up, making change.
From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick
Willian joined Chelsea from Anzhi Makhachkala in 2013, with the investigation finding that transfer fee payments totalling £19.2m were made to two unregistered entities in connection with his move and that of Samuel Eto'o.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 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
He played 14 games in the Premier League totalling 703 minutes, scoring only three goals at a rate of one every 234 minutes.
From BBC ● 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
Seventy-five per cent was granted them, the sum totalling $600,000 being paid.
From The Journal of Negro History, Volume 5, 1920 by Various
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.
