totem pole

noun

plural totem poles

1

: a pole or pillar carved and painted with a series of totemic symbols representing family lineage and often mythical or historical incidents and erected by Indigenous peoples of the northwest coast of North America

2

: an order of rank : hierarchy

the people at the bottom/top of the totem pole

As low man on the totem pole [=the least important or least powerful person] I had to clean out the grease trap …

—David Brooks

Illustration of totem pole

• totem pole 1

Examples of totem pole in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

California has slipped a notch in the bragging-rights totem pole to the world’s fifth-largest economy in the latest update on global business output. —Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 16 Oct. 2025

Houston may have been at the bottom of the totem pole at the start of the year, but that reality has already left itself in the past. —Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 6 Oct. 2025

And over the past nine months, a team of judges has been measuring it, pinpointing the exact location of the wave’s base, then stacking images of Slebir’s crouched pose on top of each other like a totem pole up the face of the wave. —Julia Prodis Sulek, Mercury News, 13 Sep. 2025

Job-hopping was once a surefire way of climbing the totem pole to higher salaries and bigger job titles. —Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 11 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1880, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for totem pole

• amphibole
• asystole
• buttonhole
• casserole
• centriole
• decontrol
• glycerol
• metropole
• monopole
• multipole
• omeprazole
• oriole

Kids Definition

totem pole

noun

: a pole carved and painted with symbols of totems and set up by Indigenous people of the northwest coast of North America