Meaning

• One who counts

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

• A reckoner; someone who collects data by counting; an enumerator.

• 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."

• A telltale; a contrivance attached to an engine, printing press, or other machine, for the purpose of counting the revolutions or the pulsations.

• A variable, memory location, etc. whose contents are incremented to keep a count.

• A hit counter.

• A table or board on which money is counted and over which business is transacted

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

• A shop tabletop on which goods are examined, weighed or measured.

• In a kitchen, a surface, often built into the wall and above a cabinet, designed to be used for food preparation.

• In a bathroom, a surface, often built into the wall and above a cabinet, which holds the washbasin.

• Any stone lying closer to the center than any of the opponent's stones.

• The prison attached to a city court; a compter.

• (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.