How to Use sum total in a Sentence

sum total

noun
Definition of sum totalnext
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  • The sum total of the DNA contained in the 23 pairs of chromosomes is the genome.
    — Quanta Magazine, 25 Feb. 2015
  • The sum total of all these economies accounts for more than 17% of the global GDP.
    — Akshat Rathi, Quartz, 27 June 2019
  • The sum total of the impact of chronic stress can add up to a shorter life.
    — Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 10 Mar. 2022
  • The sum total of the Heat’s free agent spending suggested that might be the case.
    — Rob Mahoney, SI.com, 5 Apr. 2018
  • But the sum total of its parts amounts to far more than a music store and a concert venue.
    — Julia Wick, latimes.com, 8 June 2019
  • Netflix did not reveal the sum total of the deal, but it has been known to shell out a lot for big names.
    — Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, 21 May 2018
  • So, the sum total benefit to the Prime over the normal Prius is rather meager.
    — Jim Resnick, Ars Technica, 24 Jan. 2018
  • Leadership is, in many ways, the sum total of a person’s soft skills.
    — Mark C. Perna, Forbes, 24 May 2021
  • Without them, the pop star is only the sum total of what the public already knows about them.
    — Billboard Staff, Billboard, 21 Nov. 2017
  • More than one shed is allowed if the sum total does not exceed 144 square feet.
    — Jeff Piorkowski/special To Cleveland.com, cleveland.com, 11 Apr. 2018
  • The plays resulted in a short completion and a sack, the sum total being a loss of one yard.
    — Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2021
  • The sum total is a mix of ideas that smack of desperation and panic.
    — The Economist, 14 June 2019
  • These three figureheads take up a lot of narrative but are hardly the sum total of the book.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 5 July 2022
  • And that was the sum total of his efforts on economic populism.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 20 Aug. 2020
  • Tax cuts seem to be the sum total of the Republican fiscal agenda, for now at least.
    — Mark Trumbull, The Christian Science Monitor, 25 Oct. 2017
  • And that was the sum total of sustenance that was available to their family.
    — Eugene Scott, Washington Post, 16 Apr. 2018
  • Before snowball Earth, the most complex life—and the sum total of over 3.5 billion years of evolution—seems to have been a sponge.
    — Jennifer Frazer, Scientific American, 24 Sep. 2021
  • But the sum total of its gliding abstractions is a mite brainless.
    — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 7 Sep. 2017
  • That’s pretty much the sum total of my impressions from this trailer.
    — Hayden Dingman, PCWorld, 13 June 2020
  • This was the sum total of its imprint on the English national story.
    — John Phipps, The Economist, 16 Apr. 2021
  • This small act of ingestion was more impactful than the sum total of your career will be.
    — Jake Goldwasser, The New Yorker, 7 Apr. 2022
  • The sum total of our local and state elections can be just as crucial as the national contests—if not more so.
    — Harpers Magazine, 5 Jan. 2021
  • The individual parts still work, but the sum total is stuck in neutral.
    — Paul Sullivan, chicagotribune.com, 28 July 2019
  • As a result, spending time with him means witnessing the near sum total of New York’s fund-raisers.
    — Rachel Aviv, The New Yorker, 10 Apr. 2018
  • But with the Expansion, Callisto is the sum total of the reporting process, and that makes the next steps much more nebulous.
    — Lux Alptraum, The Verge, 17 Apr. 2018
  • The sum total of my experience: two half-day lessons three years ago, and then another half-day two years ago.
    — Outside Online, 20 May 2022
  • The sum total of his first year of college basketball was seven games, 84 minutes, 20 points.
    — Josh Newman, The Salt Lake Tribune, 14 July 2022
  • This is far from the sum total of alcohol’s negative effects—even just on sleep.
    — Olga Khazan, The Atlantic, 15 Dec. 2017
  • That’s the sum total of times my father was outwardly impatient with me.
    — Washington Post, 25 Dec. 2019
  • And if 51 Republican senators agree to that and talk the president into it, that could be the sum total of this process.
    — CBS News, 29 Dec. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sum total.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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