Word of the Day for 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".

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