total.
An amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts.
Meaning & usage
An amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts.
A total of £145 was raised by the bring-and-buy stall.
Sum.
The total of 4, 5 and 6 is 15.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English total, from Old French total, from Medieval Latin tōtālis, from tōtus (“all, whole, entire”) + -ālis, the former element of unknown origin. Perhaps related to Oscan touto (“community, city-state”), Umbrian 𐌕𐌏𐌕𐌀𐌌 (totam, “tribe”, acc.), Old English þēod (“a nation, people, tribe”), from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂ (“people”). More at English Dutch, English thede.
Entire; relating to the whole of something.
The total book is rubbish from start to finish. The total number of votes cast is 3,270.
Complete; absolute.
He is a total failure.
Defined on all possible inputs.
The Ackermann function is one of the simplest and earliest examples of a total computable function that is not primitive recursive.
Left total: Such that for every x in X there is a y in Y with x R y.
Such that any two elements are comparable, i.e. for all a and b, either a ≤ b, or b ≤ a.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English total, from Old French total, from Medieval Latin tōtālis, from tōtus (“all, whole, entire”) + -ālis, the former element of unknown origin. Perhaps related to Oscan touto (“community, city-state”), Umbrian 𐌕𐌏𐌕𐌀𐌌 (totam, “tribe”, acc.), Old English þēod (“a nation, people, tribe”), from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂ (“people”). More at English Dutch, English thede.
To add up; to calculate the sum of.
When we totalled the takings, we always got a different figure.
To equal a total of; to amount to.
That totals seven times so far.
To demolish; to wreck completely. (from total loss)
Honey, I’m OK, but I’ve totaled the car.
To amount to; to add up to.
It totals nearly a pound.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English total, from Old French total, from Medieval Latin tōtālis, from tōtus (“all, whole, entire”) + -ālis, the former element of unknown origin. Perhaps related to Oscan touto (“community, city-state”), Umbrian 𐌕𐌏𐌕𐌀𐌌 (totam, “tribe”, acc.), Old English þēod (“a nation, people, tribe”), from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂ (“people”). More at English Dutch, English thede.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.