What does tallying mean?
Tallying means counting or keeping a running record of a total. It is commonly used for votes in an election, scores in a competition, money or expenses, and numbers of people or objects. The word carries a practical, procedural meaning: rather than making a rough estimate, the speaker is systematically determining or recording the exact count. In business and technology, tallying can refer to maintaining a count of transactions, users, inventory, or other data. “Tallying” is the present participle of “tally,” and it can also be used as a gerund noun, as in “the tallying of results.” The expression comes from the historical practice of keeping a tally on a marked stick, where each notch represented an item counted. Today it remains especially associated with careful accounting and the accurate assessment of measurable quantities.
To count or record the number, total, or amount of something.
"The officials were tallying the final votes in the eastern districts."
Often used when counting votes, scores, money, expenses, or other measurable quantities.
The act or process of counting or recording a total.
"The tallying of responses took most of the afternoon."
The noun use is less common than the verb use but is standard in formal and journalistic contexts.
From notched sticks used to keep accounts, tallying has become the modern habit of counting votes, scores, and everything else that adds up.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does tallying come from?
The word derives from “tally,” which originally referred to a stick marked with notches for keeping a record of a count. The noun developed in the late medieval period, and the verb “tally” came to mean count or record. “Tallying” is the modern present-participle and gerund form of that verb, retaining the older sense of maintaining a count or account.
Related word forms
How tallying is actually used
Tallying is generally neutral and formal in tone, although it is especially common in news reports, elections, finance, and data collection. The gerund form can function as a noun in phrases such as “the tallying of votes.”
Easily confused with tallying
Tallying is the present participle of the verb tally, meaning to count or record a total.
Tally is the base verb from which tallying is formed; it can also be a noun for a record of a count or a mark used to keep a tally.