Definitions for totems

• Definition
• Anagrams (93)

totems to·tem

Spelling: [toh-tuh m]

IPA: /ˈtoʊ təm/

Totems is a 6 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 8 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 9 points.

You can make 93 anagrams from letters in totems (emostt).

Definitions for totems

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 totems

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 totems

Or are they relics, totems of a strange faith that demands our allegiance?

Had they held their corn-feast—or can you say anything of the totems of the tribe?

I recognize these totems all too well, because I have at one time or another embraced them myself.

"These men have their totems and their sign manuals," said the commissioner.

These clans, as we see, separated strictly according to totems.

Here in the drawing are some totems seen daily in our towns.

Had they held their corn feast—or can you say anything of the totems of the tribe?

Their brandishing of totems, their busting of taboos is real world stuff, not symbolic.

totems, in their developed form, are revered, but rarely if ever worshiped.

Gone are the cheerful sham marriages held up as totems for the rest of us to emulate.