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
verb (used with object)
-
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)
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.
Related Words
See whole.
Other Word Forms
- quasi-total adjective
- quasi-totally adverb
- retotal verb (used with object)
- supertotal noun
- totally adverb
- untotaled adjective
- untotalled adjective
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
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.
Borrowers in other graduate programs will be capped at $20,500 per year and $100,000 in total.
From MarketWatch
Each was picked because of its statistically significant ability to forecast the S&P 500 inflation-adjusted total return over the subsequent decade.
From MarketWatch
Issuers quickly exploited a loophole in the new rule, however, and the number of sub-$15 million IPOs on Nasdaq in 2025 surged past the total for 2024.
From Barron's
The real death toll is believed to be much higher, and military experts we have consulted believe our analysis of cemeteries, war memorials and obituaries might represent 45-65% of the total.
From BBC
He added that he has hundreds of militiamen under his command, contradicting observers who put the total number of fighters across the five groups at around 200.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
