different between prize vs count

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English prise, from Old French prise (“a taking, capture, a seizure, a thing seized, a prize, booty, also hold, purchase”), past participle of prendre (“to take, to capture”), from Latin prendere (“to take, seize”); see prehend. Compare prison, apprise, comprise, enterprise, purprise, reprisal, surprise, etc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?a?z/
• • Rhymes: -a?z
• Homophones: pries, prise

Noun

prize (plural prizes)

1. That which is taken from another; something captured; a thing seized by force, stratagem, or superior power.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 4, Canto 4, p. 54,^[1]

     […] wherefore he now begunne

     To challenge her anew, as his owne prize,

     Whom formerly he had in battell wonne,

2. (military, nautical) Anything captured by a belligerent using the rights of war; especially, property captured at sea in virtue of the rights of war, as a vessel.
3. An honour or reward striven for in a competitive contest; anything offered to be competed for, or as an inducement to, or reward of, effort.
   • 1676, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe, London: Henry Herringman, Act 5, p. 73,^[2]

     I fought and conquer’d, yet have lost the prize.

4. That which may be won by chance, as in a lottery.
   • 1928, Weston Jarvis, Jottings from an Active Life, London: Heath Cranton, p. 256,^[3]

     Cecil Rhodes […] was never tired of impressing upon one that the fact of being an Englishman was “the greatest prize in the lottery of life,” and that it was that thought which always sustained him when he was troubled.

5. Anything worth striving for; a valuable possession held or in prospect.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Philippians 3.14,^[4]

     I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

6. (obsolete) A contest for a reward; competition.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene 2,^[5]

     Like one of two contending in a prize,

     That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes […]

7. A lever; a pry; also, the hold of a lever.

   Synonym: prise

Usage notes

Do not confuse with price.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• prise
• price

Etymology 2

From Middle English prysen, borrowed from Old French priser (“to set a price or value on, esteem, value”), from pris (“price”), from Latin pretium (“price, value”), whence price; see also praise, a doublet. Compare appraise, apprize.

Verb

prize (third-person singular simple present prizes, present participle prizing, simple past and past participle prized)

1. To consider highly valuable; to esteem.
   • c. 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act III, Scene 1,^[6]

     […] I

     Beyond all limit of what else i’ the world

     Do love, prize, honour you.

   • 1676, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe, London: Henry Herringman, Act V, p. 83,^[7]

     I pris’d your Person, but your Crown disdain.

   • 2013, J. M. Coetzee, The Childhood of Jesus, London: Harvill Secker, Chapter 20, p. 167,^[8]

     ‘ […] An old broken cup has no value. No one prizes it.’

     ‘I prize it. It’s my museum, not yours.’

2. (obsolete) To set or estimate the value of; to appraise; to price; to rate.
   • c. 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, Act III, Scene 2,^[9]

     […] no life,

     I prize it not a straw, but for mine honour,

   • 1611 King James Version of the Bible, Zechariah 11.13,^[10]

     […] a goodly price that I was prized at.

3. To move with a lever; to force up or open; to prise or pry.
4. (obsolete) To compete in a prizefight.

Derived terms

• foreprize
• outprize
• overprize
• prizable
• prizer
• underprize
• unprizable
• unprized

Translations

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

prize (not comparable)

1. Having won a prize; award-winning.

   a prize vegetable

2. first-rate; exceptional

   He was a prize fool.

Etymology 4

Alternative forms.

Noun

prize (plural prizes)

1. Obsolete form of price. [16th–19th c.]
   • 1777, Joshua Reynolds, in John Ingamells, John Edgcumbe (eds.), The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Yale 2000, p. 69:

     My prizes – for a head is thirty five Guineas – As far as the Knees seventy – and for a whole-length one hundred and fifty.

Further reading

• prize in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• prize in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• pizer, rezip

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ka?nt/
• Rhymes: -a?nt

Etymology 1

From Middle English counten, borrowed from Anglo-Norman conter, from Old French conter (“add up; tell a story”), from Latin computare, present active infinitive of comput? (“I compute”). Displaced native Middle English tellen (“to count”) (from Old English tellan) and Middle English rimen (“to count, enumerate”) (from Old English r?man). Doublet of compute.

Verb

count (third-person singular simple present counts, present participle counting, simple past and past participle counted)

1. (intransitive) To recite numbers in sequence.

2. (transitive) To determine the number (of objects in a group).
3. (intransitive) To be of significance; to matter.

4. (intransitive) To be an example of something: often followed by as and an indefinite noun.
   • 1886, John Addington Symonds, Sir Philip Sidney

     This excellent man […] counted among the best and wisest of English statesmen.

5. (transitive) To consider something an example of something.

6. (obsolete) To take account or note (of).
7. (Britain, law) To plead orally; to argue a matter in court; to recite a count.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Burrill to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (determine the number of objects in a group): enumerate, number; see also Thesaurus:count

Derived terms

Related terms

• compute

Translations

Noun

count (plural counts)

1. The act of counting or tallying a quantity.

2. The result of a tally that reveals the number of items in a set; a quantity counted.
3. A countdown.
4. (law) A charge of misconduct brought in a legal proceeding.
5. (baseball) The number of balls and strikes, respectively, on a batter's in-progress plate appearance.

6. (obsolete) An object of interest or account; value; estimation.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

count (not comparable)

1. (linguistics, grammar) Countable.

Etymology 2

From Middle English counte, from Anglo-Norman conte and Old French comte (“count”), from Latin comes (“companion”) (more specifically derived from its accusative form comitem) in the sense of "noble fighting alongside the king". Doublet of comes and comte.

Noun

count (plural counts)

1. The male ruler of a county.
2. A nobleman holding a rank intermediate between dukes and barons.
3. (entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Tanaecia. Other butterflies in this genus are called earls and viscounts.

Synonyms

• (English counts): earl
• (French counts): comte
• (Italian counts): conte
• (German counts): graf

Derived terms

• viscount
• count palatine, count palatinate

Related terms

• (female form or wife): countess, contessa
• (adjectival form): comital
• (related titles): baron, don, duke, earl, lord, prince

Translations

Anagrams

• no-cut

Middle English

Noun

count

1. Alternative form of cunte