What does totalize mean?
Totalize is a somewhat uncommon verb meaning to combine separate parts or amounts into a complete sum. In its most familiar use, a person or process totalizes figures: analysts totalize the day's sales, or a program totalizes costs from several categories. The word can also be used more abstractly, as when a critic totalizes a body of work by describing it as a single unified whole. This broader use often carries a critical implication that complexity is being reduced to an oversimplified totality. The spelling totalize is chiefly North American; totalise is the standard British counterpart. Although ordinary speakers are more likely to say add up, sum, or total, totalize is useful when the act of forming an aggregate is itself the focus. It belongs to a productive English family built on total: totalization names the process, while the related total, totality, and totalism reflect the same Latin foundation and the idea of wholeness.
verbTo combine separate amounts, values, or parts to obtain a complete total; to sum. In a more abstract sense, to regard or represent something as a unified whole.
- To combine separate amounts, values, or items into a complete total.
- To regard, describe, or organize something as a unified whole.
"The report totalizes the estimated costs from every department before presenting the final budget."
"The spreadsheet automatically totalizes the revenue figures for each quarter."
"The critic's retrospective essay totalizes the novelist's career around its central political theme."
The word preserves an old idea inside a modern verb: Latin totus, meaning “the whole,” lies at the heart of totalize.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does totalize come from?
Totalize was formed in English from total and the productive verb-forming suffix -ize. Total entered Middle English from Medieval Latin totalis, which was derived from Latin totus, meaning “the whole” or “entire.” The related English forms total, totality, totally, and totalism likewise express ideas of completeness or wholeness.
Related word forms
How totalize is actually used
The spelling totalize is chiefly North American, while totalise is standard in British English. The verb is relatively uncommon compared with totalization and add up. In abstract or theoretical writing, it can imply that something complex is being reduced to a single unified whole.
Easily confused with totalize
Total is the common verb for arriving at a sum, while totalize is a more formal or specialized verb emphasizing the formation of a complete aggregate.
Totality is a noun meaning an entire amount or the state of being complete, whereas totalize is the verb describing the act of forming or treating something as a total.