Meaning & use
totalling
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“totalling” is a form of “total”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitiveBritish
Reaching a particular sum when everything is added together.
Grammar: The -ing form of total; often followed by a number: costs totalling five hundred pounds.
Patterns
- totalling an amount
The repairs, totalling more than two thousand pounds, shocked the owners.
Donations totalling ten thousand pounds were raised.
She spent an hour totalling the receipts.
verbtransitiveBritish
Adding up numbers or amounts to find their sum.
Grammar: Takes an object: she was totalling the figures.
Patterns
- totalling something up
He is totalling the bills at the kitchen table.
The clerk was totalling the day's sales.
They are totalling up the votes.
Common combinations
- totalling over
- The fines are totalling over fifty pounds.
- totalling up
- She sat totalling up the receipts.
- costs totalling
- The costs, totalling several thousand pounds, were paid by the council.
- losses totalling
- The company reported losses totalling a million pounds.
- debts totalling
- He had debts totalling twenty thousand pounds.
Synonyms and how they differ
- amounting to
- Amounting to is more general and can be used when the sum is not calculated exactly.
- adding up
- Adding up is more informal and stresses the process of calculating.
- coming to
- Coming to is a casual way of saying that the sum reaches a certain amount.
Word family
Commonly confused: totalling or totaling?
totalling vs totaling
Totaling, with one l, is the American spelling. Totalling, with two, is standard British and Australian.
Practice
A British newspaper reports that donations are ___ more than two million pounds. Which spelling is standard in British English?
Choose one answer.
British English doubles the final l before -ing, giving totalling; totaling is American, and totalising/totalized are different words meaning to make total.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “totalling”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.