to count a group of objects means to assign a natural number to each one of the objects, as if it were a label for that object, such that a natural number is never assigned to an object unless its predecessor was already assigned to another object, with the exception that zero is not assigned to any object: the smallest natural number to be assigned is one, and the largest natural number assigned depends on the size of the group. it is called "the count" and it is equal to the number of objects in that group.