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Glite Dictionary
🧮 To tally 🥊 To lose by knockout
to take the count

to take the count

1 5.3
To add up votes to find the total
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : contar
  • Roberta tries to take a head count, Dorothea confers with a stage manager, Assunta fixes a boy's tie, and Janet helps one girl with her hair, stopping in the middle to button the back of another girl's dress.
  • take a head count
  • take the first count

Examples

  • Before the event starts, the organizers will take the count of attendees to ensure everything is prepared.

  • I thought he might be taking a head count.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The Sergeant-at-Arms will bar the doors, and the Clerk will take count of all who stand in opposition to the regular order.

    Blog text (4)

  • Nairobi is home to many informal settlements, where it's very difficult to take an exact head count.

    Blog text (12)

  • The election officials will take the count once all the ballots are cast.

  • After the meeting, we need to take the count of those who voted for the proposal.

Synonyms

to tally
vsto take the count
18 3.0

To count or add things like points and votes

focuses specifically on calculating totals for votes, ballots, or items

Surface Forms

take the count infinitive
took the count past
taken the count past participle
taking the count present participle
takes the count third person singular

Morphology

take + the + count

The meaning 'to count or tally' is directly and compositionally derived from 'take' (to perform or carry out) plus 'count' (a tally/total), with 'the' as a simple determiner. This follows a common English pattern (e.g. 'take the temperature', 'take the measurements') that B1 learners who know the constituent words will readily infer.

Etymology

The phrase take the count is used in voting and meetings: people sit with papers and take a careful count of votes or items, adding numbers one by one. So, take the count means 'to count or tally the total'.