countable

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaʊntəbəl/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

  • (US) IPA^(key): [ˈkʰãʊ̯̃n(ɾ)əbɫ̩]

countable (not comparable)

1. Capable of being counted; having a quantity.

   Antonym: uncountable

2. (mathematics, of a set) finite or countably infinite; having a one-to-one correspondence (bijection) with a subset of the natural numbers.

   Antonym: uncountable

3. (mathematics, of a set) Countably infinite; having a bijection with the natural numbers.

   Synonym: denumerable

4. (grammar, of a noun) Freely usable with the indefinite article and with numbers, and therefore having a plural form.

   Antonym: uncountable

   • 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.

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.

• non-denumerable
• uncountable

• (countably infinite): infinite

• (having a bijection with a subset of the natural numbers): finite, countably infinite

• countability

countable (plural countables)

1. (grammar) A countable noun.