total
part of speech
noun (total, totals); adjective; verb (total, totals, totalled/totaled); adverb (casual: totally)
meaning for a pupil
1) The total is the whole amount you get when you add everything up. tree →
2) Total as an adjective means whole or complete: «total cost», «total silence». tree →
3) To total is to add up to an amount: «The bill totals 20 dollars». tree →
4) (casual) To total a car is to wreck it so badly it cannot be fixed. tree →
5) (casual) «Totally» or «totes» (slang) means completely, yes for sure. tree →
6) (rude) «a total idiot», «a total disaster» use total to make an insult stronger. tree →
7) (formal) Exams say «the aggregate», «the sum total», «the cumulative total» or «in its entirety». tree →
sense in the lessons
the sum of all the parts; «in total» usually means add; a total score adds up all the points; phrases: «in total», «the total cost», «a total of», «grand total», «running total»; in casual talk «totally», «totes», «he totalled his car»; in rough talk «you total muppet», «total rip-off»; in the exam voice «the aggregate amount», «compute the sum total», «the cumulative expenditure»
examples
- How many cards did Ben buy in total? tree →
- The total cost is 12 cents. tree →
- There are 30 children in total, and 14 are boys. tree →
- The total of 4, 5 and 6 is 15. tree →
- Our team scored a total of 42 points. tree →
- The shopping totalled 18 dollars. tree →
- The library was in total silence. tree →
- Keep a running total of the money you save. tree →
- Totes worth it, 3 for 5 bucks. tree →
- 20 bucks for chips? Total rip-off. tree →
- Compute the aggregate expenditure incurred across the three purchases of 4, 5 and 6 dollars. tree →
- My uncle totalled his car but nobody was hurt. tree →
- Once out in the current my raft flew swiftly under the gloomy archway, and I found myself in total darkness, carried smoothly forward by the rapid river. tree →
note
«in total» usually means add. Trap: if the total is given, a missing part is total − the known part. «aggregate», «sum total», «cumulative» in an exam mean the total. «totalled a car» means wrecked it, not added anything. Spelling: totalled (UK), totaled (USA).
In the corpora
- Borrowing always has a price called interest, so the total paid back is more than the price tag.
- What is the total at the end, and is there a cheaper way?
- Pit vipers such as rattlesnakes have heat-sensing pits on their faces that find warm-blooded prey in total darkness.
- Sperm whales hunt squid more than a kilometre down in total darkness with clicks that are among the loudest sounds any animal makes.
- Owls and cats see very well in dim light, but no eye can see anything in total darkness.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «total» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.