total adjective - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

Definition of total adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

total

adjective
 
/ˈtəʊtl/
 
/ˈtəʊtl/
[usually before noun]
jump to other results
  1. being the amount or number after everyone or everything is counted or added together
    • Their total cost was $18 000.
    • This brought the total number of accidents so far this year to 113.
    • The club has a total membership of 300.
    • the total profit/sales/revenue/income/expenditure/value
    • Try to cut down on the total amount of fat that you eat.
    • The total student population at Cambridge University is around 13,000 students.
  2. used when you are emphasizing something, to mean ‘to the greatest degree possible’ synonym complete
    • The room was in total darkness.
    • They wanted a total ban on handguns.
    • The evening was a total disaster.
    • I can't believe you'd tell a total stranger about it!
    • These comments indicate a total lack of understanding.
    • They lived with an almost total lack of information about what was happening.
    • She maintained total artistic control over a project.
    Extra Examples
    • I always expect total honesty from my employees.
    • She was a total mystery to him despite their long association.
    • Six years of total war had left no citizen untouched.
    • The emperor demanded total submission from his subjects.
    • The game ended in a total rout.
    • There was a look of total concentration on her face.
    • They were to surrender immediately or face total annihilation.
  3. Word Originlate Middle English: via Old French from medieval Latin totalis, from totum ‘the whole’, neuter of Latin totus ‘whole, entire’. The verb, at first in the sense ‘add up’, dates from the late 16th cent.
See total in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee total in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
alloy
noun
 
 
From the Topic
Physics and chemistry
C2
Oxford Learner's Dictionaries Word of the Day