Bare count: a number that cannot be checked against a market
A bare count is a language figure with no list behind it. Its size carries no information about whether one particular market is covered, which is the only question most readers have, and it is still recorded because the vendor did publish it. As of 2026-09-22.
| Question | Answered by a count | Answered by a list |
|---|---|---|
| How large does the vendor believe its inventory is | Yes | By counting |
| Is my market covered | No | Yes |
| Are dialects counted in the figure | Only if stated | Visible |
| Can the figure be reproduced | No | Yes |
Inclusion rule. One disclosure shape against the other, on the questions a reader brings to a language claim. Order. Fixed order, the question a count does answer first.
1Size is the least informative property
Two bare counts in this register are twenty-seven times apart and equally unusable for checking a market. A third vendor publishes two counts forty apart on one page, which makes the point by itself.
That is why the register never rounds a count up into a list, and never treats a larger figure as a stronger cell. The cell says what was published and names the shape it was published in.
2It is recorded because it is not nothing
A count tells a reader that the vendor believes it has an inventory worth mentioning, and it gives them something specific to ask about. An empty cell does not even do that.
So a count fills the cell in the sense that something was published, and the register marks it as a count rather than a list. The distinction is printed in the cell itself rather than kept in a footnote.
3A plus sign makes it worse, not better
Figures in this category are usually written with a plus after them. That converts a number into a lower bound, which means two vendors publishing the same figure may be describing inventories of quite different sizes.
It also means the figure can stay on a page for years without becoming wrong, which removes the only pressure that would keep it current. A list has to be edited when the product changes; a lower bound does not.
A definition, not a measurement: no vendor figure appears here that is not also in the register. Every cell in this register holding a count rather than a list says so in the cell.
Nearby terms: Named list, Plus figure. The whole vocabulary is at terms; nothing on this page is a claim about a named product.