counter adj : indicating opposition or resistance [syn: antagonistic]

1 table consisting of a horizontal surface over which business is transacted

2 game equipment used in various card or board games

3 a calculator that keeps a record of the number of times something happens [syn: tabulator]

4 a piece of furniture that stands at the side of a dining room; has shelves and drawers [syn: buffet, sideboard]

5 a person who counts things

6 a quick reply to a question or remark (especially a witty or critical one); "it brought a sharp rejoinder from the teacher" [syn: rejoinder, retort, return, riposte, replication, comeback]

7 (computer science) a register whose contents go through a regular series of states (usually states indicating consecutive integers)

8 the piece of leather that fits the heel [syn: heel]

9 a piece of leather forming the back of a shoe

10 a return punch (especially by a boxer) [syn: counterpunch, parry] adv : in the opposite direction; "run counter"

1 speak in response; "He countered with some very persuasive arguments"

2 act in advance of; deal with ahead of time [syn: anticipate, foresee, forestall]

English

Pronunciation

/ˈkaʊntə/

• Rhymes with: -aʊntə(r)

Etymology 1

countour, from conteor (French comptoir), from computatorium, from computare.

Noun

1. An object (now especially a small disc) used in counting or keeping count, or as a marker in games, etc.

   He rolled a six on the dice, so moved his counter forward six spaces.

2. Any stone lying closer to the center than any of the opponent's stones.
3. A table or board on which money is counted and over which business is transacted; a shop tabletop on which goods are examined, weighed or measured.

   He put his money on the counter, and the shopkeeper put it in the till.

4. One who counts, or reckons up; a reckoner.

   He's only 16 months, but is already a good counter - he can count to 100.

5. A telltale; a contrivance attached to an engine, printing press, or other machine, for the purpose of counting the revolutions or the pulsations.
6. The prison attached to a city court; a Counter.
7. In the context of "grammar": a class of word used along with numbers to count objects and events, typically mass nouns. Although rare and optional in English (e.g. "20 head of cattle"), they are numerous and required in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
8. In a kitchen, a surface, often built into the wall and above a cabinet, whereon various food preparations take place.
9. A proactive defensive hold or move in reaction to a hold or move by one's opponent.

   Always know a counter to any hold you try against your opponent.

10. Something in contradiction or opposition to a proposal, suggestion, policy, etc.

    We believe that his proposal is counter to our well-established policy.

Translations

Etymology 2

From and contre, from contra.

Adverb

1. Contrary, in opposition; in an opposite direction.

   "Running counter to all the rules of virtue." -Locks.

Translations

Noun

1. The overhanging stern of a vessel above the waterline.

Etymology 3

From counter-.

Verb

1. To contradict, oppose.
2. In the context of "boxing": To return a blow while receiving one, as in boxing.
   • "His left hand countered provokingly." -C. Kingsley.
3. To take action in response to; to respond.

Adjective

1. Contrary; opposite; contrasted; opposed; adverse; antagonistic.

   His carrying a knife was counter to my plan.

Derived terms

• counter current
• counter revolution
• counter poison
• counter agent
• counter fugue
• countertop

Anagrams

• recount
• trounce

In digital logic and computing, a counter is a device which stores (and sometimes displays) the number of times a particular event or process has occurred, often in relationship to a clock signal. In practice, there are two types of counters:

• up counters which increase (increment) in value
• down counters which decrease (decrement) in value

Counters in electronics

In electronics, counters can be implemented quite easily using register-type circuits such as the flip-flop, and a wide variety of designs exist, e.g:

• Asynchronous (ripple) counters
• Synchronous counters
• Johnson counters
• Decade counters
• Up-Down counters
• Ring counters

Each is useful for different applications. Usually, counter circuits are digital in nature, and count in binary, or sometimes binary coded decimal. Many types of counter circuit are available as digital building blocks, for example a number of chips in the 4000 series implement different counters.

Asynchronous (ripple) counters

Counters in computer science

In computability theory, a counter is considered a type of memory. A counter stores a single natural number (initially zero) and can be arbitrarily many digits long. A counter is usually considered in conjunction with a finite state machine (FSM), which can perform the following operations on the counter:

• Check whether the counter is zero
• Increment the counter by one
• Decrement the counter by one (if it's already zero, this leaves it unchanged).

The following machines are listed in order of power, with each one being strictly more powerful than the one below it:

1. Deterministic or Non-deterministic FSM plus two counters
2. Non-deterministic FSM plus one stack
3. Non-deterministic FSM plus one counter
4. Deterministic FSM plus one counter
5. Deterministic or Non-deterministic FSM

For the first and last, it doesn't matter whether the FSM is deterministic or non-deterministic (see determinism). They have equivalent power. The first two and the last one are levels of the Chomsky hierarchy.

The first machine, an FSM plus two counters, is equivalent in power to a Turing machine. See the article on register machines for a proof.

Counters in the Internet

A web counter counts how many time a website or certain page has been viewed. They are usually accurate but some controversies have started regarding if they are accurate or not. This is usually because most counters count the number of unique hits a page gets while others count how many times a page was viewed even if the same person viewed it twice.

See also

• Time to digital converter

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