verb
tally
TA-lee
verb
1
To count or add up a total.
"The clerk tallied the votes late into the night."
"Let's tally up how much we spent this month."
2
To match or agree with something else.
"Her story didn't tally with what the witnesses said."
noun
1
A running count or total.
"He kept a tally of every book he read that year."
How to Use Tally
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishTo keep count of something, or a running total of that count.
Common pairings
keep a tally
tally up
final tally
Word Forms
more tally comparative, tallied past tense, tallies singular, most tally superlative
Study it as flashcards or scroll it in Flow — saved to your collection.
Test yourself on “tally”
A quick quiz — meaning, synonyms & usage
→
Fill the Gap
Can you complete this real example?
Let's _____ up how much we spent this month.
Etymology
A shortened form of "tallyho," though the counting sense comes from an older tradition of recording numbers with notches on a stick.