Definitions for totem

• Definition
• Anagrams (43)

totem to·tem

Spelling: [toh-tuh m]

IPA: /ˈtoʊ təm/

Totem is a 5 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 7 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 8 points.

You can make 43 anagrams from letters in totem (emott).

Definitions for totem

noun

1. a natural object or an animate being, as an animal or bird, assumed as the emblem of a clan, family, or group.
2. an object or natural phenomenon with which a family or sib considers itself closely related.
3. a representation of such an object serving as the distinctive mark of the clan or group.
4. anything serving as a distinctive, often venerated, emblem or symbol.

Origin of totem

1750-60, Americanism; Ojibwa ninto·te·m my totem, oto·te·man his totem (probably orig. my clan-village-mate, derivative of stem o·te·- dwell in or as a village; compare o·te·na village)

Examples for totem

But as the U.S. killed all those leaders, the strikes continued and began working their way down the totem pole.

He stroked his hand over the totem mark on the cant dog handle.

Pale-face—he sleep, but he wake soon when Red Fox make sign of totem.

“totem” is by a very young Singaporean artist named Chun Kai Feng, now having his first solo show at Fost Gallery in Singapore.

"'The totem will not let the redmen do wrong,'" he quoted mentally.

The totem may also be a vegetable, in which case no member of the stock will gather or eat it.

The spirits that come from the Silver Waters are not the spirits that the totem called.

He would never deign me with any sort of acknowledgment, because I was too low on the totem pole.

She was willing to talk to the most senior people or the lowest person on the totem pole.

That is something I look at as a totem of what movies used to be.