tally

[tal-ee] /ˈtæl i/
noun, plural tallies.
1.
an account or reckoning; a record of debit and credit, of the score of a game, or the like.
2.
Also called tally stick. a stick of wood with notches cut to indicate the amount of a debt or payment, often split lengthwise across the notches, the debtor retaining one piece and the creditor the other.
3.
anything on which a score or account is kept.
4.
a notch or mark made on or in a tally.
5.
a number or group of items recorded.
6.
a mark made to register a certain number of items, as four consecutive vertical lines with a diagonal line through them to indicate a group of five.
7.
a number of objects serving as a unit of computation.
8.
a ticket, label, or mark used as a means of identification, classification, etc.
9.
anything corresponding to another thing as a counterpart or duplicate.
verb (used with object), tallied, tallying.
10.
to mark or enter on a tally; register; record.
11.
to count or reckon up.
12.
to furnish with a tally or identifying label.
13.
to cause to correspond or agree.
verb (used without object), tallied, tallying.
14.
to correspond, as one part of a tally with the other; accord or agree:
Does his story tally with hers?
15.
to score a point or make a goal, as in a game.
Origin
1275-1325; (noun) Middle English taly < Medieval Latin talia, variant of Latin tālea rod, cutting, literally, heel-piece, derivative of tālus heel; (v.) late Middle English talyen, derivative of the noun
Related forms
tallier, noun
retally, noun, plural retallies, verb, retallied, retallying.
untallied, adjective
Synonyms
1. inventory, count, enumeration. 10. enroll, list. 11. enumerate, calculate.
Examples from the web for tally
  • They keep tally on what's theirs and what's not because they have learned to count.
  • We are going to keep a running tally of where people stand.
  • If the hand tally matches the machine tally, the county can recount the remaining ballots by machine only.
  • And newspapers had yet to turn the admissions cycle into an annual tally of percentages and prestige.
  • Home advantage has, on average, added an additional six medals to a country's tally.
  • Watching yourself scoring the items, even before you tally them, you'll come to know what you want.
  • Helicopters flew around counting people, and a second tally checked if they were still there.
  • The discoveries increase the continent's tally of known sharks and rays by a third.
  • The key to the body's tally of fat stores is the hormone leptin.
  • At a given college, an application tally might reflect only how easy it is to apply.
British Dictionary definitions for tally

tally

/ˈtælɪ/
verb -lies, -lying, -lied
1.
(intransitive) to correspond one with the other: the two stories don't tally
2.
(transitive) to supply with an identifying tag
3.
(intransitive) to keep score
4.
(transitive) (obsolete) to record or mark
noun (pl) -lies
5.
any record of debit, credit, the score in a game, etc
6.
a ticket, label, or mark, used as a means of identification, classification, etc
7.
a counterpart or duplicate of something, such as the counterfoil of a cheque
8.
a stick used (esp formerly) as a record of the amount of a debt according to the notches cut in it
9.
a notch or mark cut in or made on such a stick
10.
a mark or number of marks used to represent a certain number in counting
11.
(Austral & NZ) the total number of sheep shorn by one shearer in a specified period of time
Derived Forms
tallier, noun
Word Origin
C15: from Medieval Latin tālea, from Latin: a stick; related to Latin tālus heel
Word Origin and History for tally
n.

mid-15c., "stick marked with notches to indicate amount owed or paid," from Anglo-French tallie (early 14c.), Anglo-Latin talea (late 12c.), from Medieval Latin tallia, from Latin talea "a cutting, rod, stick" (see tailor, and cf. sense history of score). Meaning "a thing that matches another" first recorded 1650s, said to be from practice of splitting a tally lengthwise, debtor and creditor each retaining one of the halves. Sports sense of "a total score" is from 1856.

v.

mid-15c., from Medieval Latin talliare "to tax," from tallia (see tally (n.)). Related: Tallied; tallying.