Totalling

How to spell totalling

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce totalling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does totalling mean?

1. verbAdding figures together to reach a sum, or amounting to a stated overall figure.

Totalling in a sentence

• The accountant spent the morning totalling the quarterly invoices.

• Repairs to the roof and the boiler are totalling more than we budgeted.

Where does totalling come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'total', which traces back to the Latin word totus, meaning 'whole' or 'entire'. From totus medieval Latin formed totalis, 'pertaining to the whole', and that adjective passed into English through Old French as 'total' in the late 1300s, first as an adjective and then as a noun for a complete sum. The verb sense, 'to add up to' or 'to find the sum of', grew out of the noun and was well established by the 1700s. When endings are added in British and Canadian writing, the final l is doubled, giving 'totalling', whereas American practice keeps a single l in 'totaling'; the doubling follows the older convention of doubling a final l after a single vowel regardless of stress. The same totus root survives in everyday relatives such as 'totality' and the informal 'totally', which can make the doubled consonant in 'totalling' feel surprising.

How the word is built

• total (whole, entire, from Latin totus)
• -ing (present participle suffix), with the final l doubled in British and Canadian spelling