Totem

Quick meaning: Totem is a noun meaning Any natural object or living creature that serves as an emblem of a tribe, clan or family; the representation of such an object or creature.

Meaning

Any natural object or living creature that serves as an emblem of a tribe, clan or family; the representation of such an object or creature.

More Meanings

1. The clan whose kinship is defined in reference to such an object or creature.
2. (figuratively) A symbol or personification.
3. An arbitrarily chosen object serving as a reminder to check whether one is awake or not, to aid in having lucid dreams.
4. A tall object resembling a totem pole.

Example Sentences

The totem members were forbidden to eat the flesh of the totem animal, or were allowed to do so only under specific conditions.

Out the front of the Drive-in rose the town’s main tourist attraction, a totem of signs to bizarre places with impossible distances such as Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and so on.

These meanings flow from bear-like characteristics imprinted on totem members. Members of the bear clan may have dispositional, cognitive, and physical capabilities similar to those of bear.

“She became a totem,” he added. “She became the personification of a particular response to the pandemic, which people in the far-flung margins of the internet and the not so far-flung margins used against her.”

Word Forms

• totems

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include object, subject, purpose, pole, emu, subtotem.

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