Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use total in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, adjective, verb

Total means an amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts. Example: “A total of £145 was raised by the bring-and-buy stall.”

Examples of total by meaning

nounAn amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts.

  • A total of £145 was raised by the bring-and-buy stall.

nounSum.

  • The total of 4, 5 and 6 is 15.

adjectiveEntire; relating to the whole of something.

  • The total book is rubbish from start to finish. The total number of votes cast is 3,270.
  • Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
  • Each member brought a unique musical influence to the total sound.1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 145

adjectiveComplete; absolute.

  • He is a total failure.

adjectiveDefined 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.

verbTo add up; to calculate the sum of.

  • When we totalled the takings, we always got a different figure.

verbTo equal a total of; to amount to.

  • That totals seven times so far.

verbTo demolish; to wreck completely. (from total loss).

  • Honey, I’m OK, but I’ve totaled the car.

More sentences with total

  • What she said about me was total bunk. Don't believe a word.From the entry bunk
  • This house is a total pit. We've got to do some cleaning!From the entry pit
  • The total cost of the new complex was an estimated $1.5 million.From the entry cost
  • The sum of expenditures and taxes minus total income is a loss, when this difference is positive.From the entry loss
  • We've classified by a fluke; actually, the first goal was just a total fluke.From the entry fluke
  • The total impulse from the impact will depend on the kinetic energy of the projectile.From the entry impulse
  • State police made a total of 15 drug-related arrests across the city.From the entry arrest
  • Severe radiation poisoning results in the total denudation of the gastrointestinal tract.From the entry denudation
  • The authoritarian regime oversaw the total emasculation of the country's judiciary.From the entry emasculation
  • The play is divided into three acts, and in total twenty-five scenes.From the entry scene
  • If you don’t have the exact expense total, just ballpark it.From the entry ballpark
  • Remarkably, three State assembly elections were decided by a total of fewer than one hundred votes.From the entry remarkably
  • She's literally perfect in every way. She just has it, you know? A total it girl.From the entry it girl
  • He hit three ramps in a row to push his team near the opponents total.From the entry ramp
  • Last night, we all went drinking, and the whole thing turned into a total gong show.From the entry gong show
  • There’s no way we can hire that guy. He’s a total burnout—he can't do the work.From the entry burnout
  • Whenever you edit a value in the spreadsheet, the total at the bottom is recomputed.From the entry recompute
  • The car got totaled by accident; a giant snowdrift fell off the church roof.From the entry by accident
  • The total resistance of two resistors connected in parallel is easily calculated using a simple formula.From the entry in parallel
  • The total resistance of two resistors connected in series is easily calculated as the simple sum.From the entry in series
  • The crawlable Web made accessible by search engines does not represent the total extent of the Internet.From the entry crawlable
  • I've just been in an accident. I'm fine, but the car is totaled.From the entry I'm fine
  • We estimate our work-from-home employees to be 30% of our total full-time equivalents.From the entry full-time equivalent
  • The part needs a total dwell time in the autoclave of 95 minutes.From the entry dwell time
  • Attacking a goalie trying to make a save is a total cheap shot, I think.From the entry cheap shot
  • When it comes to Hollywood actors, Brad Pitt is the total package.From the entry total package
  • The sum total of my belongings is the clothes in my knapsack.From the entry sum total
  • That genius of a brother of mine has totaled my car, again.From the entry of mine
  • Don't let him touch the bat, he's a total panauti — we always lose when he's around.From the entry panauti
  • That boss fight was a total yapfest, full of boring dialogue.From the entry yapfest

Meaning of total

  1. noun An amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts.
  2. noun Sum.
  3. adjective Entire; relating to the whole of something.

Full definition of total

Questions about total in a sentence

How do you use total in a sentence?
Total is used as a noun, adjective and verb. For example: “A total of £145 was raised by the bring-and-buy stall.”
What is a short sentence with total?
“He is a total failure.”
What does total mean?
Total means an amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: total (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use total in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/total. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.