Able to be counted or enumerated; having a finite or discrete number; in mathematics, refers to a set whose elements can be matched one-to-one with whole numbers.
From 'count' (Old French 'conter', Latin 'computare') plus the suffix '-able' (capable of being). The mathematical sense developed in the late 19th century with Georg Cantor's work on set theory.
Mathematicians use 'countable infinity' to describe sets like whole numbers—you can count forever, but there's a one-to-one matching system, unlike 'uncountable' infinities like all real numbers, which are weirdly 'more infinite'!
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