total

Etymology

From Middle English total, from Old French total, from Medieval Latin tōtālis, from tōtus (“all, whole, entire”) + -ālis, the former element of unknown origin. Perhaps related to Oscan 𐌕𐌏𐌖𐌕𐌏 (touto, “community, city-state”), Umbrian 𐌕𐌏𐌕𐌀𐌌 (totam, “tribe”, acc.), Old English þēod (“a nation, people, tribe”), from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂ (“people”). More at English Dutch, English thede.

noun

1. An amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts.
   A total of £145 was raised by the bring-and-buy stall.
2. (informal, mathematics) Sum.
   The total of 4, 5 and 6 is 15.

adj

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.
   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. 2013-08-03, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
2. (used as an intensifier) Complete; absolute.
   He is a total failure.
3. (mathematics) (of a function) Defined 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.

verb

1. (transitive) To add up; to calculate the sum of.
   When we totalled the takings, we always got a different figure.
2. To equal a total of; to amount to.
   That totals seven times so far.
3. (transitive, US, slang) To demolish; to wreck completely. (from total loss)
   Honey, I’m OK, but I’ve totaled the car.
   He acted real funny / He hocked up a rock and / It totaled my car! 1972, Frank Zappa (lyrics and music), “Billy the Mountain”
4. (intransitive) To amount to; to add up to.
   It totals nearly a pound.