"count" definition, meaning, and origin

Adjective

Countable.
- For example, the term abuse would require at least one definition for the uncount usage ‘invective, insulting language’, and another for the count usage ‘an item of invective, an insult’. - 2014, James Lambert,...
Used to show the amount of like items in a package.

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Latin com- Latin putus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin putō Latin computō Anglo-Norman counterbor. Middle English counten English count From Middle English counten, borrowed from Anglo-Norman conter, from Old French conter (“add up; tell a story”), from Latin computō (“to 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).

Derived

countification countify noncount uncount

Noun Entry 2

The act of counting or tallying a quantity.
- Give the chairs a quick count to check if we have enough.
- Breathe out slowly through your mouth for a count of five.
The result of a tally that reveals the number of items in a set; a quantity counted.
- By the official count, there are something like thirteen hundred species of birds in the Amazon, but Cohn-Haft thinks there are actually a good many more, because people have relied too much on features like size and...
A countdown.
A distinct and separate charge in an indictment or complaint.
- Zou, who was living in Elephant and Castle, south-east London, was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim. He was also convicted of three counts of voyeurism, 10 of possession of...
- Anthony Williams (32), of Langford Road, Peterborough, was arrested and charged with ten counts of attempted murder, one count of ABH (Actual Bodily Harm), and one count of possession of a bladed article. - 2025...
The number of balls and strikes, respectively, on a batter's in-progress plate appearance.
- He has a 3–2 count with the bases loaded.
An object of interest or account; value; estimation.
- When he was readie to his steede to mount / Vnto his way, which now was all his care and count. - 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie,...
Cunt (the taboo swear word)
- That count deserves a punishment.

Forms

counts

Derived

ahead in the count behind in the count bit-count integrity blood count body count Borda count cell count complete blood count countback count circle count form countless countline count noun count plural countrate countwheel countwise day count convention down for the count fastball count full blood count full count hard count

Noun Entry 3

The male ruler of a county.
- After his marriage, John made a progress through the country with his beautiful Elizabeth, and they purchased towns and villages and lands until he became master of nearly half Rügen, and a very considerable count in...
A nobleman holding a rank intermediate between dukes and barons.
Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Tanaecia. Other butterflies in this genus are called earls and viscounts.

Origin

From Middle English counte, from Anglo-Norman conte and Old French comte (“count”), from Latin comes (“companion”) (more specifically derived from its accusative form comitem) in the sense of "noble fighting alongside the king". Doublet of comes, comte, and conte.

Verb

To recite numbers in sequence.
- Can you count to a hundred?
- The psychiatrist asked her to count down from a hundred by sevens.
To determine the number of (objects in a group).
- Count the number of apples in the bag and write down the number on the spreadsheet.
- 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,...
- How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. - c. 1845–1846, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnets from the Portuguese”, in Poems. […], new edition, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], published 1850, →OCLC, sonnet...
Synonyms: tell
To amount to, to number in total.
- They counted thirty, crowded in a space Which left scarce room for motion or exertion; […] - 1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto II, stanza LXIII, page 150:
To be of significance; to matter; to be considered (as something); to be included (of something).
- Your views don’t count here.
- It does count if you cheat with someone when you’re drunk.
To be an example of something: often followed by as and an indefinite noun.
- Apples count as a type of fruit.
- This excellent man […] counted among the best and wisest of English statesmen. - 1886, John Addington Symonds, Sir Philip Sidney:
- 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...
To consider something as an example of something or as having some quality; to account, to regard as.
- He counts himself a hero after saving the cat from the river.
- I count you as more than a friend.
- The entertainment we haue had of him, Is far from villanie or ſeruitude, And might in noble mindes be counted princely. - c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part...
To reckon in, to include in consideration.
- They walked for three days, not counting the time spent resting.
To take account or note (of), to care (for).
- […]to make her faire, that no man counts of her beauty. - c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio),...
To recount, to tell.
To plead orally; to argue a matter in court; to recite a count.