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:
AB 1847 extends relief for a total of 24 months for L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
Last year Japan's total fertility rate dropped to a record low of 1.14.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
Those managers who see a success were at a mere net 16%, with those expecting total failure at 29%.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
Grass phytoliths dominated the samples, accounting for as much as 97% of the total.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
If you had to choose between a total stranger having your baby brother and the Herdmans having him, you would pick the total stranger every time.
From "The Best School Year Ever" by Barbara Robinson
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
The totals are not definitive and could yet rise.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
In terms of cumulative volume breadth, both “stocks only” totals reached new all-time highs yesterday, so that is a bullish sign.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
More than 2.4 million patients attended emergency departments each month for May, June and July – the three highest monthly totals recorded in history.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
He couldn’t wait to report the totals to Brother Leon.
From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
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
Core inflation totaled 2.4%, above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
Its dividends totaled 6,800 won a share in 2025.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
At the one-year mark of the restrictions, a Wine Institute report said U.S. wine exports totaled $805 million in 2025, down 35% from 2024.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Involuntarily, my mind totaled her purchases to $4.53.
From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
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
When a so-called "risk-adjusted" backlog is totalled up for all NHS buildings in Wales - which focuses on major problems where safety could be at risk - the bill comes to more than £1bn.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 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
To Belgium her exports totalled $37,258,225, and her imports $20,370,530.
From The Argentine Republic by Anonymous
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
Vu tried to cash at least six Treasury checks totaling $2.15 million and successfully cashed two tax fund refunds worth $772,159, the indictment says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
Meta would pay in 10 annual installments totaling about $11.7 billion, with a further $5 billion payable only if rival platforms sign comparable agreements -- a maximum of $16.7 billion.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
Seated at a banquette table in the back of the restaurant, the pair ordered two entrees, drinks, and appetizers, totaling $371.55, and at some point during the meal, Eatherly began livestreaming.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
Later Sumerian cuneiform did become capable of rendering prose, but it did so by the messy system that I’ve already described, with mixtures of logograms, phonetic signs, and unpronounced determinatives totaling hundreds of separate signs.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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
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
A socio-economic taskforce set up four years ago put forward regeneration proposals totalling £70m - and some money has been forthcoming.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
They were also ordered to pay victim surcharges totalling £2,960, and costs of £17,250.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
But the banks themselves had little money among them, the net assets slightly exceeding half a million sterling, and the aggregate deposits totalling less than a quarter of a million.
From Our First Half-Century: A Review of Queensland Progress Based Upon Official Information by Queensland
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.
