Total

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Pronunciation: /ˈtəʊ.tl̩/

Definitions

1. The complete amount when everything is added together
2. The full or whole quantity that results from adding all components together
3. The aggregate sum that reflects the entirety of a given set of values or items

Etymology: The word "total" carries a surprising trace of tribal life. Its ancestor, Latin "tōtus," meant "all, whole, entire," and a family of Italic languages used cognate words for a people or community: Oscan "touto" meant something like "community" or "city-state," and Umbrian "totam" meant "tribe." The idea was that a people, taken together, made up a whole. The adjective grew from "tōtus" with the suffix "-ālis," which turned it into "tōtālis," meaning "of the whole." Medieval Latin used this form, and it passed into Old French as "total." English borrowed it from French in the Middle Ages, when it still meant simply "whole" or "complete," a sense it keeps in the phrase "total amount." The Italic and Germanic connections are less certain. Old English "þēod," meaning "a nation, people, tribe," is often linked to the same ancient root, which would make "total" and English "thede" distant relatives. Scholars treat this as a possibility rather than settled fact.

Synonyms: complete, entire, whole, aggregate, full

Antonyms: partial, incomplete, fractional, limited, insufficient