Count

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kaÊŠnt/
• Rhymes: -aÊŠnt

From Middle English counten, from Anglo-Norman conter, from Old French conter ("add up; tell a story"), from Latin computare, present active infinitive of computō ("I compute"). Displaced native Middle English tellen ("to count") (from Old English tellan) and Middle English rimen ("to count, enumerate") (from Old English rīman).

Full definition of count

Noun

1. The act of counting or tallying a quantity.Give the chairs a quick count to check if we have enough.
2. The result of a tally that reveals the number of items in a set; a quantity counted.
3. A countdown.
4. (legal) A charge of misconduct brought in a legal proceeding.
5. (baseball) 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.
6. (obsolete) An object of interest or account; value; estimation.
• Spenserall his care and count

Derived terms

Verb

1. (intransitive) To enumerate the digits of a numeral system.
   Can you count to a hundred?
2. (transitive) To determine the number (of objects in a group).
   There are three apples; count them.
3. (intransitive) To be of significance; to matter.
   Your views don't count here.   It doesn't count if you cheat with someone when you're drunk.
4. (intransitive) To be an example of something.
• J. A. SymondsThis excellent man ... counted among the best and wisest of English statesmen.
• 2013-08-03, Boundary problems, 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.
5. Apples count as a type of fruit.
6. (transitive) To consider something an example of something.
   He counts himself a hero after saving the cat from the river.   I count you as more than a friend.
7. (obsolete) To take account or note (of).
• ShakespeareNo man counts of her beauty.
8. (UK, legal) To plead orally; to argue a matter in court; to recite a count.

Derived terms

Related terms

• compute

From Old French comte, conte, from Latin comes, comitem.

Noun

1. The male ruler of a county; also known as an earl, especially in England. The female equivalent is countess.

Synonyms

• baron
• don
• duke
• earl
• lord
• prince
• viscount