different between sheer vs total

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /????/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???/
• Rhymes: -??(?)
• Homophone: shear

Etymology 1

From Middle English shere, scheere, schere, skere, from Old English s??re; merged with Middle English schyre, schire, shire, shir, from Old English s??r (“clear, bright; brilliant, gleaming, shining, splendid, resplendent; pure”) and Middle English skyr, from Old Norse skírr (“pure, bright, clear”), both from Proto-Germanic *sk?riz (“pure, sheer”) and *skairiz, from Proto-Indo-European *s??y- (“luster, gloss, shadow”).

Cognate with Danish skær, German schier (“sheer”), Dutch schier (“almost”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (skeirs, “clear, lucid”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian hir (“grace, beauty; goodwill”).

Adjective

sheer (comparative sheerer or more sheer, superlative sheerest or most sheer)

1. (textiles) Very thin or transparent.

2. (obsolete) Pure in composition; unmixed; unadulterated.
   • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, scene ii:

     If she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lying’st knave in Christendom.

   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, King Richard the Second, Act V, scene iii:

     Thou sheer, immaculate and silver fountain, / From when this stream through muddy passages / Hath held his current and defiled himself!

3. (by extension) Downright; complete; pure.
   • 2012, July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track

     Cycling's complex etiquette contains an unwritten rule that riders in contention for a race win should not be penalised for sheer misfortune.

4. Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
   • 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[4]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):

     Perhaps as startling as the sheer toll was the devastation to some of the state’s well-known locales. Boardwalks along the beach in Seaside Heights, Belmar and other towns on the Jersey Shore were blown away. Amusement parks, arcades and restaurants all but vanished. Bridges to barrier islands buckled, preventing residents from even inspecting the damage to their property.

5. Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.

Synonyms

• (very thin or transparent): diaphanous, see-through, thin
• (pure, unmixed): pure, undiluted
• (downright, complete): downright, mere (obsolete), pure, unmitigated
• (straight up and down): perpendicular, steep, vertical

Derived terms

• sheerly
• sheerness
• sheer-to-waist

Translations

Adverb

sheer (comparative more sheer, superlative most sheer)

1. (archaic) Clean; quite; at once.

Translations

Noun

sheer (plural sheers)

1. A sheer curtain or fabric.

Translations

Etymology 2

Perhaps from Dutch scheren (“to move aside, skim”); see also shear.

Noun

sheer (plural sheers)

1. (nautical) The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.
2. (nautical) An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.

Translations

Verb

sheer (third-person singular simple present sheers, present participle sheering, simple past and past participle sheered)

1. (chiefly nautical) To swerve from a course.
2. (obsolete) To shear.

   • So thick, our navy scarce could sheer their way

Translations

Further reading

• sheer at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “sheer”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

References

Anagrams

• Esher, Herse, Rhees, heers, here's, heres, herse

Burushaski

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?e??]

Noun

sheer (plural sheerisho)

1. lion

References

Sadaf Munshi (2015) , “Word Lists”, in Burushaski Language Documentation Project?^[5].

Middle English

Noun

sheer

1. Alternative form of shere

English

Alternative forms

• totall (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English total, from Old French total, from Medieval Latin t?t?lis, from t?tus (“all, whole, entire”), of unknown origin. Perhaps related to Oscan ???????????????????? (touto, “community, city-state”), Umbrian ???????????????????? (totam, “tribe”, acc.), Old English þ?od (“a nation, people, tribe”), from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh? (“people”). More at English Dutch, English thede.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t??.t?l/
• (General American) enPR: t??tl, IPA^(key): /?to?.t?l/, [t?o????], [t????]
• Rhymes: -??t?l

Noun

total (plural totals)

1. An amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts.

   A total of £145 was raised by the bring-and-buy stall.

2. (informal, mathematics) Sum.

   The total of 4, 5 and 6 is 15.

Synonyms

• (sum): sum

Derived terms

• subtotal

Translations

See also

• addition, summation: (augend) + (addend) = (summand) + (summand) = (sum, total)
• subtraction: (minuend) ? (subtrahend) = (difference)
• multiplication: (multiplier) × (multiplicand) = (factor) × (factor) = (product)
• division: (dividend) ÷ (divisor) = (quotient), remainder left over if divisor does not divide dividend

Adjective

total (comparative more total, superlative most total)

1. Entire; relating to the whole of something.

   • Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.
2. (used as an intensifier) Complete; absolute.

3. (mathematics) (of a function) Defined on all possible inputs.

Synonyms

• (entire): entire, full, whole; see also Thesaurus:entire
• (complete): absolute, complete, utter; see also Thesaurus:total

Derived terms

• total allergy syndrome
• total eclipse
• totalism
• totalitarian
• totality
• totally
• total order
• total war

Translations

Verb

total (third-person singular simple present totals, present participle (UK) totalling or (US) totaling, simple past and past participle (UK) totalled or (US) totaled)

1. (transitive) To add up; to calculate the sum of.

   When we totalled the takings, we always got a different figure.

2. To equal a total of; to amount to.

   That totals seven times so far.

3. (transitive, US, slang) to demolish; to wreck completely. (from total loss)

   Honey, I’m OK, but I’ve totaled the car.

4. (intransitive) To amount to; to add up to.

   It totals nearly a pound.

Synonyms

• (add up): add up, sum
• (demolish): demolish, trash, wreck

Translations

Anagrams

• lotta

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin t?t?lis.

Adjective

total (epicene, plural totales)

1. total

Noun

total m (plural totales)

1. total

Derived terms

• en total

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin t?t?lis, attested from the 16th century.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /to?tal/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /tu?tal/

Adjective

total (masculine and feminine plural totals)

1. total

Derived terms

• totalment

Related terms

• totalitat

Noun

total m (plural totals)

1. total

Derived terms

• en total

References

Further reading

• “total” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “total” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “total” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Danish

Etymology 1

From French total.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tota?l/, [t?o?t?æ??l]

Adjective

total

1. total

Inflection

Noun

total c (singular definite totalen, plural indefinite totaler)

1. total

Inflection

Etymology 2

Compound of to (“two”) and tal (“number”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /total/, [?t?ot?al]

Noun

total n (singular definite totallet, plural indefinite totaller)

1. two

Inflection

Synonyms

• 2-tal

French

Etymology

From Latin t?t?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?.tal/
• Homophones: totale, totales

Adjective

total (feminine singular totale, masculine plural totaux, feminine plural totales)

1. total
2. perfect

Antonyms

• (total): partiel

Noun

total m (plural totaux)

1. total

Related terms

• au total
• question totale
• sous-total
• totalement
• totaliser
• totalitaire
• totalité
• tout

Further reading

• “total” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Galician

Etymology

From Latin t?t?lis.

Adjective

total m or f (plural totais)

1. complete, entire

Noun

total m (plural totais)

1. total

Further reading

• “total” in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega, Royal Galician Academy.

German

Etymology

From Latin t?t?lis.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?l

Adjective

total (not comparable)

1. total

Declension

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin t?t?lis, from totus.

Adjective

total (neuter singular totalt, definite singular and plural totale)

1. total

Derived terms

• totalskade
• totaltap

References

• “total” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin t?t?lis, from totus.

Adjective

total (neuter singular totalt, definite singular and plural totale)

1. total

Derived terms

• totalskadd
• totaltap

References

• “total” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Portuguese

Etymology

From Medieval Latin t?t?lis (“total”), from Latin t?tus (“whole”) + -?lis (“-al”).

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /tu.?ta?/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /to.?taw/

Adjective

total m or f (plural totais, comparable)

1. complete; entire (to the greatest extent)

   Synonyms: completo, inteiro

2. total (relating to the whole of something)

Antonyms

• (complete): incompleto, parcial

Noun

total m (plural totais)

1. total (amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts)

   Synonym: totalidade

Related terms

Romanian

Etymology

From French total

Adjective

total m or n (feminine singular total?, masculine plural totali, feminine and neuter plural totale)

1. total

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

From Medieval Latin t?t?lis, from t?tus (“all, whole, entire”).

Adjective

total (plural totales)

1. total, complete, outright

Adverb

total

1. (colloquial) basically, so, in short (used to summarise)

Noun

total m (plural totales)

1. total

Derived terms

• en total

See also

• todo

References

• “total” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

Swedish

Etymology

From German total, from French total, from Latin totalis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t??t??l/
• Rhymes: -??l

Adjective

total (not comparable)

1. total

Declension

References

• total in Svensk ordbok (SO)

Anagrams

• Lotta, lotta