- add
- add 1 Add, sum, total, tot, cast, figure, foot share the meaning to find or represent the amount reached by putting together arithmetically a series of numbers or quantities, and are commonly followed by up.Add is both the common and the technical word; it commonly implies strict adherence to the traditional arithmetical operation. Even in figurative use it implies a similar operation{
taken as a whole the vignettes and the stories add up to a single effect— Aldridge
}{the whole undertime trend adds up to a major consideration for businessmen and employees— Lack
}Sum stresses the result attained rather than the method followed. In figurative use sum up implies a gathering and consolidation into a new whole, especially for the production of a single telling effect{a lawyer in summing up summarizes in brief and logical form the evidence favorable to his case or client that has been given
}{I summed up all the systems in a phrase and all existence in an epigram— Wilde
}{values they can sum up in a few simple formulas— Croly
}Total tends to replace sum up in literal use{determined the cost by totaling all expenditures
}It may also mean to reach the sum or number of{absences due to colds totaled 253 last week
}Tot, cast, figure, and foot are used especially of commercial matters (as accounts and bookkeeping devices).Tot and cast often imply facility in reckoning{the waiter quickly totted the bill
}{if you tot up all the items that we owed against all the items that foreigners owed us— Hutton
}{cast up an account
}Figure usually suggests the task or burden involved in reckoning{figure the costs of operating an automobile
}Foot connotes bookkeeping and totals at the bottom of each column of figures{his debts will foot up to more than he can ever pay
}2 Add, append, annex, subjoin, superadd.Add, the most general of these words, means to join one thing to another thing or to a group, series, or combination of other things so as to increase the original unit in numbers, size, amount{added ten books to the library
}{a little gossip adds spice to the conversation
}{police action would add nothing to the protection that victims of aggression have enjoyed under the old system— Wolfers
}One appends when one adds something that is supplemental and accessory and does not form an integral part of the principal thing{append notes to a book
}{the final summary of his views which he enjoyed appending to his long-winded discourses—/. V. Morris
}One annexes when one adds something that becomes part of the original whole yet bears usually a subordinate or subsidiary relation to it or suffers loss of identity in the merging{annex a codicil to a will
}{annex conquered territory to the kingdom
}One subjoins when one adds something under another thing or especially to what has already been said or written{subjoin a postscript to a letter
}{subjoin additional matter in an appendix
}One superadds when one adds something to what is complete in itself or already at its maximum{the phrase “to paint the lily” means to superadd decoration to that which in itself is highly decorative
}{the horrors of pestilence superadded to the horrors of war
}Antonyms: subtract, deduct
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
