total

plural totals · alternative totall

1. An amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts.

   A total of £145 was raised by the bring-and-buy stall.

2. informalmathematicsSum.

   The total of 4, 5 and 6 is 15.

   Synonyms: sum

comparative more total · superlative most total · alternative totall

1. 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.

   3 more examples

   Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers,[…]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.

   1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Each member brought a unique musical influence to the total sound.

   1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 145

   Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.

   2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847

   Synonyms: entire

2. Complete; absolute.

   He is a total failure.

   1 more example

   Air waid! Wights out! Total bwackout!

   1942 November 21, A Tale of Two Kitties, spoken by Tweety

3. mathematicsDefined 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.

4. broadlymathematicsLeft total: Such that for every x in X there is a y in Y with x R y.
5. mathematicsSuch that any two elements are comparable, i.e. for all a and b, either a ≤ b, or b ≤ a.

present singular third person totals · US participle present totaling · UK participle present totalling · US participle past totaled · US past totaled · UK participle past totalled · UK past totalled · alternative totall

1. transitiveTo add up; to calculate the sum of.

   When we totalled the takings, we always got a different figure.

   Synonyms: sum

2. To equal a total of; to amount to.

   That totals seven times so far.

   Synonyms: make

3. USslangtransitiveTo demolish; to wreck completely. (from total loss)

   Honey, I’m OK, but I’ve totaled the car.

   2 more examples

   He acted real funny / He hocked up a rock and / It totaled my car!

   1972, Frank Zappa, “Billy the Mountain”

   Smashed up against a car at 3 AM, / The kids dressed up for basketball beat me in my head, / There's bum trash in my hall, and my place is ripped, / I totaled another amp, I'm calling in sick.

   1988, “Hyperstation”, in Daydream Nation, performed by Sonic Youth

   Synonyms: demolish, trash, wreck

4. intransitiveTo amount to; to add up to.

   It totals nearly a pound.