countable

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *ḱe?
Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm
Proto-Italic *kom
Proto-Italic *kom-
Latin con-
Latin putus
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu.
Proto-Italic *-ājō
Proto-Italic *-āō
Latin -ō
Latin putō
Latin computō
Anglo-Norman counterbor.
Middle English counten
Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom
Proto-Italic *-ðlom
Proto-Italic *-ðlis
Latin -bilis
Latin -ābilis
Old French -ablebor.
Middle English -able
Middle English countable
English countable

    From Middle English countable, equivalent to count (“to enumerate”) +‎ -able.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /ˈkaʊn.tə.bəl/
    • (US) IPA(key): /ˈkaʊn.tə.bəl/, [ˈkʰãʊ̯̃n.(ɾ)ə.bɫ̩]
    • Audio (Southern England):(file)
    • Rhymes: -aʊntəbəl
    • Hyphenation: count‧a‧ble

    Adjective

    countable (not comparable)

    2. Capable of being counted; having a quantity.
      Antonyms: uncountable, countless, numberless, innumerable; see also Thesaurus:innumerable
    4. (mathematics, of a set) Finite or countably infinite; having a one-to-one correspondence (bijection) with a subset of the natural numbers.
      Antonyms: uncountable, infinite
      Hypernyms: finite, countably infinite
      2. (mathematics, of a set) Countably infinite; having a bijection with the natural numbers.
        Synonym: denumerable
        Antonyms: uncountable, non-denumerable
    6. (grammar, of a noun) Freely usable with the indefinite article and with numbers.
      Synonym: count
      Antonyms: uncountable, noncount, non-count
      • 2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 112:
        In these extracts the word abuse is used in the sense of ‘an individual piece of invective’ or ‘an abusive comment’ and is clearly a countable noun.

    Usage notes

    • The mathematics sense by which finite sets are countable is more common than the sense by which finite sets are not countable. To avoid ambiguity, the terms at most countable or countably infinite may be used.

    Derived terms

    Translations

    grammar: freely used with numbers and the definite article

    Noun

    countable (plural countables)

    2. (grammar) A noun that is countable.
      Synonyms: count noun, countable noun
      Antonyms: uncountable, mass noun, noncount noun, non-count noun, uncountable noun

    See also

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