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:
As eagle-eyed reader David Moore of Canfield, Ohio, noted of my three-day road trip, “Looks like it took an extra three hours for the total drive due to charging.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2026
A total of 35,000 households were assessed as being homeless or threatened with homelessness in 2025-26.
From BBC ● Nov. 11, 2026
Describing the 14 jets as "state-of-the-art, fuel-efficient", CEO Ronald Lam said they would upgrade Cathay's total fleet and "enhance connectivity at our home hub Hong Kong".
From Barron's ● Nov. 11, 2026
By the end of that month, she said, she was already on the brink of passing her room-night total for all of 2025.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 2026
Ninety minutes later a twin-engine turbo-prop Beechcraft King Air B200 with no flight markings landed in total darkness on the grass airstrip that was once RAF Aisling.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
Basin’s highest rain totals at about an inch and a half.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026
But annual reports record far lower totals, among the opaque details activists wanted clarified.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
High rainfall totals have been recorded in the Scottish Highlands, peaking in Cluanie Inn which received 130mm.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026
In total, including options and restricted stock, his ownership in SpaceX totals 6.4 billion shares, valued currently at $960 billion.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026
Brian Cochran added the totals again and again, toying with them, playing with them, as if he were a juggler and they were fascinating figures of delight.
From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
It deployed $2.2 billion in private equity, including capital for the acquisition of a music publishing and technology platform, while segment monetization totaled $1.8 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Overall revenues for the first nine months of the year totaled 859 billion riyals, while spending was just over 1.1 trillion riyals, resulting in a deficit of 244 billion riyals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026
Taghi generates most of his revenue through trunk shows: this year, sales at his events have totaled more than $1.5 million.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
In 2014, merchant cash advances nationwide totaled about $8.6 billion, according to one federal agency.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
Involuntarily, my mind totaled her purchases to $4.53.
From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
In 2025-26, Chelsea totalled 123 build-up attacks and 613 sequences of 10 passes or more.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
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
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
Even in 1896 the cheese exported totalled only 8,505 lb.
From Our First Half-Century: A Review of Queensland Progress Based Upon Official Information by Queensland
Wall Street’s top enforcer obtained penalties last year totaling $1.1 billion, the lowest tally in nearly two decades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026
The GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison corporation, announced Monday that it had sold the detention facilities, including the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, totaling 2,644 Beds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2026
Just over 8 million income-tax returns paid the tax in 2023, totaling more than $39 billion, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2026
Lula pulled around 4.4 million more votes than his rival, totaling over 64.2 million on his seventh go at the presidency -- the highest proportion ever counted in Brazil.
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026
Treatment of agricultural lands with herbicides doubled in the decade following 1949, totaling 53 million acres in 1959.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Brent Council issued PCNs totalling £1.15m after introducing the scheme outside Manor School in Kensal Rise in November 2024, saying it would improve road safety and the environment.
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2026
After bumper second-quarter profits both SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics announced buybacks totalling $40 billion that were completed earlier than expected in mid-October.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026
The port’s record September — totalling 1,042,652 containers — also represents the most volume ever moved through any port in the Western Hemisphere.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
They also say those convicted have been jailed for sentences totalling 118 years and 22 migrant criminals were deported as a result of their offences.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
For the specific purposes of new construction appropriations totalling $295,000,000 have been made.
From Our Navy in the War by Lawrence Perry
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