How to Use sum total in a Sentence

sum total

noun
  • 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
  • The sum total of the impact of chronic stress can add up to a shorter life.
    — Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 10 Mar. 2022
  • 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
  • Leadership is, in many ways, the sum total of a person’s soft skills.
    — Mark C. Perna, Forbes, 24 May 2021
  • The sum total is a mix of ideas that smack of desperation and panic.
    — The Economist, 14 June 2019
  • 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
  • And that was the sum total of his efforts on economic populism.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 20 Aug. 2020
  • Without them, the pop star is only the sum total of what the public already knows about them.
    — Billboard Staff, Billboard, 21 Nov. 2017
  • But the sum total of its gliding abstractions is a mite brainless.
    — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 7 Sep. 2017
  • The sum total of the Heat’s free agent spending suggested that might be the case.
    — Rob Mahoney, SI.com, 5 Apr. 2018
  • That’s pretty much the sum total of my impressions from this trailer.
    — Hayden Dingman, PCWorld, 13 June 2020
  • These three figureheads take up a lot of narrative but are hardly the sum total of the book.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 5 July 2022
  • 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 plays resulted in a short completion and a sack, the sum total being a loss of one yard.
    — Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2021
  • And that was the sum total of sustenance that was available to their family.
    — Eugene Scott, Washington Post, 16 Apr. 2018
  • This is far from the sum total of alcohol’s negative effects—even just on sleep.
    — Olga Khazan, The Atlantic, 15 Dec. 2017
  • The individual parts still work, but the sum total is stuck in neutral.
    — Paul Sullivan, chicagotribune.com, 28 July 2019
  • That’s the sum total of times my father was outwardly impatient with me.
    — Washington Post, 25 Dec. 2019
  • All money is, really, is the sum total of a person’s choices.
    — Andy Meek, BGR, 30 Mar. 2022
  • Your culture is the sum total of those emotions and experiences.
    — Lisa Burke, Star Tribune, 26 Feb. 2021
  • 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
  • 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
  • This was the sum total of its imprint on the English national story.
    — John Phipps, The Economist, 16 Apr. 2021
  • So, the sum total benefit to the Prime over the normal Prius is rather meager.
    — Jim Resnick, Ars Technica, 24 Jan. 2018
  • The sum total of all these economies accounts for more than 17% of the global GDP.
    — Akshat Rathi, Quartz, 27 June 2019
  • Who better than Larry to belittle the sum total of human achievement and be wrong.
    — Chris Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Feb. 2022
  • 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
  • The Chinese side of me said that my identity exists as the sum total of others' perception.
    — Yiren Lu, Wired, 17 Aug. 2020
  • 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
  • Same could be said for playing Yordan in LF vs sum total likelihood of him getting injured there.
    — Chandler Rome, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2026

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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