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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

totem.

Any natural object or living creature that serves as an emblem of a tribe, clan or family; the representation of such an object or creature.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtoʊtəm/General-American/ˈtəʊtəm/Received-Pronunciation
  1. Any natural object or living creature that serves as an emblem of a tribe, clan or family; the representation of such an object or creature.

  2. The clan whose kinship is defined in reference to such an object or creature.

  3. A symbol or personification.

    figuratively
  4. An arbitrarily chosen object serving as a reminder to check whether one is awake or not, to aid in having lucid dreams.

  5. A tall object resembling a totem pole.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Ojibwe (o)doodem(an).

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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.