To find the total number of ways to arrange the letters in the word "YEAR", we need to determine the number of permutations of the letters.
The word "YEAR" consists of 4 distinct letters: Y, E, A, and R.
The formula for the number of permutations of \( n \) distinct objects is given by \( n! \) (n factorial).
Here, \( n = 4 \) (the letters Y, E, A, R). So we calculate \( 4! \):
\[ 4! = 4 \times 3 \times 2 \times 1 = 24 \]
Therefore, the total number of ways to arrange the letters in the word "YEAR" is 24.