Word of the Day Archive
Friday June 22, 2012
subitize \SOO-bi-tahyz\
, verb:
To perceive at a glance the number of items presented.
Below seven the subjects were said to subitize; above seven they were said to estimate.
-- H. Gutfreund and G. Toulouse, Biology and Computation: A Physicist's Choice
I wanted to see if Pedro could subitize, so I asked, “Pedro, how many stars are in the first circle?”
-- Melissa Conklin, It Makes Sense!
Subitize comes from the Latin word subitāre which meant "to appear suddenly".
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for subitize
