count
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: kount
ipa: /kaʊnt/
ipa: /kuːnt/
rhymes: -aʊnt
Forms: form: counts
form: counting
form: counted
form: counted
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: count
form: count
form: counted
form: count
form: countest
form: counted
form: countedst
form: counts
form: counteth
form: counted
form: count
form: counted
form: count
form: counted
form: count
form: -
form: counting
form: counted
Etymology: From Middle English counten, borrowed from Anglo-Norman conter, from Old French conter (“add up; tell a story”), from Latin computō (“I compute”). In this sense, displaced native Old English tellan, whence Modern English tell. Doublet of compute.
Compare typologically reckon, Russian счита́ть (sčitátʹ), счита́ться (sčitátʹsja); the semantic evolution to Mongolian санах (sanax).
Senses: examples: text: Can you count to a hundred?
text: The psychiatrist asked her to count down from a hundred by sevens.
glosses: To recite numbers in sequence.
examples: text: Count the number of apples in the bag and write down the number on the spreadsheet.
text: The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;
The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President,[…]
ref: 1803, Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution:
text: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
ref: c. 1845–1846, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnets from the Portuguese”, in Poems. […], new edition, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], published 1850, →OCLC, sonnet XLII, page 479:
synonyms: tell
glosses: To determine the number of (objects in a group).
examples: text: They counted thirty, crowded in a space
Which left scarce room for motion or exertion; […]
ref: 1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto II, stanza LXIII, page 150:
glosses: To amount to, to number in total.
examples: text: Your views don’t count here.
text: It does count if you cheat with someone when you’re drunk.
glosses: To be of significance; to matter.
examples: text: Apples count as a type of fruit.
text: This excellent man […] counted among the best and wisest of English statesmen.
ref: 1886, John Addington Symonds, Sir Philip Sidney:
text: Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.[…]But as a foundation for analysis it is highly subjective: it rests on difficult decisions about what counts as a territory, what counts as output and how to value it. Indeed, economists are still tweaking it.
ref: 2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
glosses: To be an example of something: often followed by as and an indefinite noun.
examples: text: He counts himself a hero after saving the cat from the river.
text: I count you as more than a friend.
text: The entertainment we haue had of him,
Is far from villanie or ſeruitude,
And might in noble mindes be counted princely.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene ii:
glosses: To consider something as an example of something or as having some quality; to account, to regard as.
examples: text: They walked for three days, not counting the time spent resting.
glosses: To reckon in, to include in consideration.
examples: text: […]to make her faire, that no man counts of her beauty.
ref: c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 23, column 2:
glosses: To take account or note (of), to care (for).
glosses: To recount, to tell.
topics: law
glosses: To plead orally; to argue a matter in court; to recite a count.
Synonyms: sense: determine the number of objects in a group
word: enumerate
word: number
word: count
word: numerate
word: tally
word: tell
word: tell off
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: almost doesn't count
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: be able to count on one's fingers
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: black where it counts
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: box-counting dimension
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: but who's counting
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: close only counts in horseshoes
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: close only counts in horseshoes and darts
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: countability
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count against
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count agent
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count angels on pinheads
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count calories
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count cards
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count chickens
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count coup
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count-down
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count down
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: countedness
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count 'em
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count in
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count noses
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count off
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count-off
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count on
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count one's blessings
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count one's chickens
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count one's days
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count one's lucky stars
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count on one hand
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count on the fingers of one hand
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: countor
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count out
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count room
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count sheep
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count the hours
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count to 10
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count to 3
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count to 5
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count to five
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count to ten
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count to three
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count towards
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count-up
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count up
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: count upon
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: don't count your chickens before the eggs have hatched
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: don't count your chickens before they're hatched
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: double-count
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: double count
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: forecount
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: it's the thought that counts
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: it's what's inside that counts
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: let me count the ways
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: let us count the ways
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: make it count
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: miscount
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: outcount
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: overcount
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: stand up and be counted
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: uncount
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: uncountability
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: uncounted
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: undercount
sense: Terms derived from count (verb)
word: where it counts
Related terms: word: compute
word: counting
word: innumerable