countable

English

Etymology

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

• axiom of countable choice
• countability
• countable additivity
• countableness
• countable noun
• countable set
• countably
• noncountable
• second-countable
• subcountable
• uncountable

Related terms

• countability

Translations

capable of being counted, having a quantity

• Catalan: comptable (ca)
• Czech: spočitatelný
• Danish: tællelig (da)
• Dutch: telbaar (nl), telbare (nl)
• Finnish: numeroituva (fi)
• French: dénombrable (fr)
• Georgian: თვლადი (tvladi), გამოთვლადი (gamotvladi)
• German: zählbar (de)
• Hindi: गणनीय (hi) (gaṇnīya)
• Hungarian: megszámlálható (hu)
• Italian: enumerabile
• Japanese: 数えられる (kazoerareru)
• Manx: yn-choontey
• Persian: شمارشپذیر
• Portuguese: enumerável, contável (pt)
• Romanian: numărabil (ro)
• Russian: исчисли́мый (ru) (isčislímyj)
• Slovene: števen
• Spanish: contable (es)
• Swedish: räknebar (sv), räknelig (sv)
• Walloon: contåve (wa)
• Welsh: rhifadwy (cy)

math: having a bijection with a subset of the natural numbers

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 可數 / 可数 (zh) (kěshǔ)

• Czech: spočetný
• Dutch: aftelbaar (nl)
• Finnish: numeroituva (fi)
• French: dénombrable (fr)
• German: abzählbar (de)
• Hungarian: megszámlálható (hu)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} finito o numerabile , (uncommon anglicism) ^{(please verify)} contabile (it)
• Japanese: 可算 (ja) (kasan)
• Persian: شمارشپذیر
• Polish: przeliczalny
• Portuguese: contável (pt)
• Slovene: števen
• Spanish: numerable
• Swedish: uppräknelig (sv)

math: having a bijection with the natural numbers

• Finnish: numeroituva (fi)
• Polish: przeliczalny

grammar: freely used with numbers and the definite article

• Arabic: مَعْدُود (maʕdūd)
• Belarusian: выліча́льны (vyličálʹny)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 可數 / 可数 (zh) (kěshǔ)

• Czech: počitatelný (cs) m
• Dutch: telbaar (nl), telbare (nl)
• Estonian: loenduv
• Finnish: luvullinen
• French: dénombrable (fr)
• Georgian: თვლადი (tvladi)
• German: zählbar (de)
• Hungarian: megszámlálható (hu), számszerű (hu)
• Italian: numerabile (it)
• Japanese: 可算 (ja) (かさん, kasan)
• Polish: policzalny (pl)
• Portuguese: contável (pt)
• Russian: исчисля́емый (ru) (isčisljájemyj)
• Slovene: števen
• Swedish: räknebar (sv)
• Ukrainian: обчи́слювальний (občýsljuvalʹnyj)

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

• denumerability, enumerability
• mass noun
• plurale tantum