totemic

adjective

to·​tem·​ic tō-ˈte-mik 

1

: of, relating to, suggestive of, or characteristic of a totem or totemism

a totemic animal

2

: based on or practicing totemism

totemic clan structure

Examples of totemic in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Thus the god of the clan, the totemic principle, can be none other than the clan itself, but the clan transfigured and imagined. —Glenn Adamson, Artforum, 2 May 2026

But now mired in a five-year NCAA Tournament drought and a coach removed from Jim Boeheim — the program’s totemic figurehead who won the 2003 national championship and more than 1,100 games during his 47-year tenure — what is Syracuse in the modern era, really? —Brendan Marks, New York Times, 11 Mar. 2026

For Americans in the 1880s and 1890s, the Gold Standard would become the totemic issue. —David McWilliams, Fortune, 16 Nov. 2025

Likewise, the pipelines became totemic of the dependence on cheap Russian hydrocarbons that critics felt Europe traded for a principled stance on Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine in 2014 and Georgia in 2008. —Joseph Ataman, CNN Money, 15 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1846, in the meaning defined at sense 1