Adjective
a total lack of support
a total eclipse of the sun
He demanded total control of the project.
What was the total amount of the bill?
the total number of words
The country has a total population of about 100 million. Noun
a total of 25 square miles
that's the total for our wheat harvest this year Verb
He carefully totaled the bill.
two and two total four
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
Bloomberg has reported that the figure could be closer to 20% in some divisions, potentially pushing the total number of layoffs beyond 20,000.—Edward Ludlow, Fortune, 22 Apr. 2024 Earth has a similar area for services and what also resembles the world’s largest laundromat, with a total 78 vessels.—David Browne, Rolling Stone, 22 Apr. 2024 Meanwhile, total domestic gasoline stocks decreased by 1.1 million barrels to 227.4 million barrels.—Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press, 22 Apr. 2024 Raleigh’s total grocery sales revenue was $5.6 billion, well below Charlotte’s totals.—Catherine Muccigrosso, Charlotte Observer, 22 Apr. 2024 Comscore estimated the overall total box office haul for the three-day window would reach $65.4 million.—Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 21 Apr. 2024 The Hogs left the bases loaded in the eighth and ninth innings without scoring and stranded 14 runners total.—Tom Murphy, arkansasonline.com, 20 Apr. 2024 As a result, the total number of egg-laying hens has declined by about seven million from 2021 to 2023, producing a billion fewer eggs a year — and contributing to spikes in cost.—Linda Qiu, New York Times, 20 Apr. 2024 Jury selection: Seven people have been sworn in as jurors — more than a third of the total number of people that will be needed to hold a trial with a full jury and six alternates.—Isaac Arnsdorf, Washington Post, 19 Apr. 2024
Noun
Russia fired 82 missiles and drones in total, including six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles – none of which Ukraine’s air defenses were able to down.—Svitlana Vlasova, CNN, 11 Apr. 2024 The loan that’s in default was provided by Copia Lending and totals $29 million, the county documents show.—George Avalos, The Mercury News, 11 Apr. 2024 April 11, 2024 Mizuhara lost $40 million on a total of about 19,000 bets between December 2021 and January 2024, according to the complaint.—Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2024 This year, Medium Rare produced a total of four events around the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, all of which took place within 36 hours.—Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 11 Apr. 2024 Jovic, who is also playing as the Heat’s starting power forward, logged a total of eight minutes at center in the two games leading up to Wednesday’s matchup against the Mavericks.—Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 10 Apr. 2024 Sanders has called for increasing funding for the program by $65.7 million in the upcoming fiscal year, bringing its total to $974 million.—Neal Earley, arkansasonline.com, 10 Apr. 2024 The three clinics shut down in 2022, and last year only three abortions total — for any reason — were reported statewide, according to an agency spokesperson.—Bracey Harris, NBC News, 10 Apr. 2024 That should double into the night as rainfall totals approach an inch in the most consistent areas of rainfall by Friday morning.—Ian Livingston, Washington Post, 10 Apr. 2024
Verb
Box office revenue in the U.S. and Canada is expected to total about $8.5 billion, which is down from $9 billion in 2023 and a far cry from the pre-pandemic yearly tallies that nearly reached $12 billion.—Christi Carras, Los Angeles Times, 12 Apr. 2024 Its tentacles reach some of the world’s largest companies, from Apple to LVMH and Nestlé, totaling nearly 9,000 companies worldwide.—Prarthana Prakash, Fortune Europe, 11 Apr. 2024 The bill provides a scholarship for the surviving children of the victims, which would total at least $3,000 and as much as full in-state tuition for each eligible student.—Teo Armus, Washington Post, 10 Apr. 2024 Herro totaled 14 fourth-quarter points to lead a Heat rally that fell just short against the Pacers.—Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 8 Apr. 2024 In 2019, the CBO projected that net immigration in 2023 would total 1.0 million people.—Wendy Edelberg and Tara Watson, TIME, 5 Apr. 2024 April 4, 2024 Last year, the number of park visitors totaled 3.4 million following a gradual rebound from the pandemic, although still falling short of the nearly 3.5 million who came to the park the year before COVID-19 hit.—Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Apr. 2024 Witt belted his first home run this season as the Royals totaled five homers in a 11-0 rout of the Minnesota Twins.—Jaylon Thompson, Kansas City Star, 31 Mar. 2024 Additional fundraisers for the individual families, including the family of Suazo Sandoval, totaled more than $65,000.—Emily Davies, Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2024
Adverb
Dunning upped his innings pitched total from 117 in 2021 to 153, which was the biggest marker of progress for him on the season.—Dallas News, 26 Sep. 2022 Phiaton rates the buds as offering 11 hours if continuous use, and up to 28 hours total with the charging case.—Andy Meek, BGR, 22 Dec. 2022 Battery life tops 8 hours between charges, or up to 28 hours total with the charging case.—Marc Saltzman, USA TODAY, 17 Dec. 2022 Tom Brady, the greatest winner of this generation, has won total.—Christopher L. Gasper, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Aug. 2022 What makes his opinions potentially tricky is the fact that Britain has a constitutional monarchy, which is very different from the type of absolute monarchies that wield total, undemocratic political power in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.—Alexander Smith, NBC News, 8 Sep. 2022 The offensive player to watch is C Logan Gallina (.333, 21 HR, 62 RBIs), the only Aggies player with a double-digit home run total.—San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 June 2022 Last year, there were five ozone action days total.—Liliana Webb, Detroit Free Press, 11 July 2022 Golden Gate, with a difficulty rating of 5.13b, contains 41 pitches total, with the toughest ones awaiting in the final ten, which is partly what makes the route such a demanding one to free-climb within 24 hours.—Andrew Bisharat, Outside Online, 6 Nov. 2020
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'total.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Adjective
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin totalis, from Latin totus whole, entire
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