- count
- count vb1 Count, tell, enumerate, number are comparable when they mean to ascertain the total of units in a collection by noting one after another or one group after another.Count (see also RELY) implies computation of a total by assigning to each unit or each group of units as noted its proper numeral in succession, such as one, two, three ... or three, six, nine . . .{
they were counting the books one by one when he told them it would be quicker to count them by fives
}{as many as thirty bonfires could be counted within the whole bounds of the district— Hardy
}Tell, which is somewhat old-fashioned in general use, usually stresses a counting one by one{look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them— Gen 15:5
}{all told there were 27 public schools— Jones
}or it may suggest a lingering counting interspersed with meditation on each unit counted{thus will he tell like beads the memories of his days— Powys
}Tell is more common in current use in the collocation tell off which adds to the notion of counting that of setting apart the units counted{told off a detail and put them to opening a trench— Dobie
}Enumerate implies a listing or mentioning of each one in a series not only that their total may be ascertained, but that they may be individually known or specified{enumerate the powers of the supreme court
}{enumerate the species of plants found on an island
}{enumerate the various dishes served at a dinner
}Number is a somewhat literary equivalent of either count or enumerate; in some uses it carries an additional suggestion of allotment or limit{the days of every man are numbered
}{number the flowers of the field
}{but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered— Lk 12:7
}{his hosts of blind and unresisting dupes the despot numbers— Shelley
}2 *rely, depend, bank, trust, reckoncount n *paragraph, verse, article, clause, plank
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
