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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Measurement and Data, List 1
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Operations and Algebraic Thinking
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Another investor Youngji Park says he went "all in", putting the majority of his available cash into Samsung shares that peaked at a total value of 45 million Korean won.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
The Boyle Heights warehouse, according to the call, amounted to about 1% of the company’s total global capacity so the long-term impact to the company’s bottomline was nil.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
“The stock market is a positive-sum game where fees are low and the total pot consistently expands,” Roche noted.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Online ticket marketplace StubHub was among the laggards, extending the total share-price loss since its IPO last year to 65%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
This was what they had been waiting for: total collapse.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
They are necessary because many of the more than 125,000 employers surveyed monthly about staffing totals send in their responses late, if at all.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
No voting method can always ensure that local victories produce local seats, national seat totals accurately reflect overall vote shares, and the size of parliament remains fixed.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 2, 2026
Meanwhile, a series of quick downpours such as heavy summer showers or thunderstorms may appear to give large rainfall totals, but the rain falls faster than the soil can absorb it.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Chipotle’s chicken burrito with rice, beans, cheese and salsa, plus a side of chips, totals $12.50.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
They appear to be bank ledgers, rows upon rows of numbers and calculations with notations and totals and dates.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Accel and Iconiq also participated in the financing, which totaled about $1 billion, one of the people said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
New jobless claims in the last three weeks totaled 199,000, 198,000 and 189,000 after adjusting for seasonal swings in employment.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
Watching Graham Platner’s campaign implode was like watching that expensive red sports car get totaled.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
Income before income taxes totaled $3.6 billion, a 14% increase compared to the same time period in 2025, while operating income exceeded previous guidance and rose 21% to $5.6 billion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
If they ate only once or twice a day at $3.33 per meal, that totaled $1,640 a month, Jesse estimated.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
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
In contrast, Canadian-resident return trips from overseas countries by air totalled 1.5 million in March, up 4.9% on-year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026
Meta was quick to note that compensatory damages in the Los Angeles case totalled just $3 million, with a further $3 million in punitive damages awarded by the jury Wednesday.
From Barron's ● Mar. 25, 2026
So far, the campaign has raised $3.3 million, and outside spending on her behalf has totalled less than a million dollars.
From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2026
The length of lines open for traffic totalled 1,207 miles.
From Our First Half-Century: A Review of Queensland Progress Based Upon Official Information by Queensland
For energy firms, that rises to more than 147%, while totaling around 117% and 92% for communication-services and consumer-discretionary sectors, respectively.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
A year after a tree branch fell at a Calabasas summer camp and killed a camper, the child’s family has reached a settlement with three organizations totaling almost $20 million.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Amazon added it remained committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 under The Climate Pledge, and had enabled 40 carbon-free energy projects totaling nearly 10 gigawatts in Texas.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s financial statements show he has reported accepting honors gala tickets from CBS or its parent company eight times since his 2017 appointment to the commission, totaling over $75,000 in gifts.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
My brain is humming like a cash register, totaling it up, making change.
From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick
Swiss pharmaceutical group Sandoz on Monday announced two amicable settlements in the United States, totalling $478.5 million, to resolve a long-running dispute related to generic drug pricing.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
J&J said the settlement would cover about 69,000 cases, totalling most of the remaining talc-related claims.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Pricerunner had requested damages totalling 64 billion kronor and an additional 14 billion kronor in interest.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Kyrgios was fined three times for amounts totalling £14,500 during the 2022 tournament.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
Into two sentences totalling 27 words he boils down the drift of hundreds of cables and letters. 13th August, 1915.
From Gallipoli Diary, Volume 2 by Sir Ian Hamilton
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.
