jumla

noun

the total; the sum.

Use jumla for an amount added together. Bei ya jumla means wholesale price.

Origins

Jumla entered Swahili from Arabic جُمْلَة (jumla, “totality”).

Sources6

Sergio Baldi, Dictionary of Arabic Loanwords in the Languages of Central and East Africa (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2021), entry 517, printed 62.
Records Arabic jumla, totality, and Swahili jumla.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (1903), PDF p. 146.
The total or sum.; Historical arithmetic usage: addition.; Adverbial usage: wholesale, or in lots.; Jumla comes from Arabic.; Jumla can mean a sum or total.; Jumla also has a wholesale sense.
University of Kansas Kiswahili Glossary
Kwa jumla means in total.
A Handbook of the Swahili Language as Spoken at Zanzibar
The total or sum.; Historical arithmetic usage: addition.
Tanzania Trade Development Authority, Bei ya jumla tarehe 03 Disemba, 2025, web page.
Bei ya jumla is used for wholesale prices in Tanzanian trade reporting.
Kais Dukes, Quranic Arabic Corpus: dictionary (University of Leeds), 25:32:8.
Attests Arabic جُمْلَة in the expression all at once; supports the source spelling. Baldi supplies the totality gloss and Swahili connection.

Jumla ni shilingi mia mbili.
The total is two hundred shillings.
Kwa jumla, nina shilingi mia tano.
In total, I have five hundred shillings.
Andika jumla hapa.
Write the total here.
Jumla ni kiasi gani?
How much is the total?
Angalia jumla tena.
Check the total again.
Jumla iko kwenye risiti.
The total is on the receipt.
Nimelipa jumla ya shilingi elfu moja.
I have paid a total of one thousand shillings.
Jumla ya gharama ni shilingi mia tatu.
The total cost is three hundred shillings.
Kwa jumla, tumelipa shilingi elfu mbili.
In total, we have paid two thousand shillings.