body count

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body count

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Coined by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War in the sense "number of killed enemy combatants", in 1962 according to Merriam-Webster.

noun body counts · bodycount

The number of persons or bodies counted as casualties, especially fatalities, or victims. Senator BYRD of West Virginia. Why do we minimize our losses as apparently we do? I find it extremely difficult to believe that there have been 6,200 VC and NVA killed by body count, whereas we have only lost 193 Americans and 335 ARVN troops.
Of a killer, especially a serial killer, the number of people who have been killed by a given individual.
slang The total number of sexual partners of a given individual. The numbers don’t matter. It’s not a body count, a scratch-pad list or a boast. Statistics obscure intent and meaning. My toll is therefore ambiguous. Girlfriends, wives, one-night stands, paid companions. Chaste early figures. A high-stat blitz later on. Quantity means shit in my case.
Similar: notch count, mileage
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see body, count. ...based upon a February visit of GAO to Houston where they were not keeping statistics, the figure from GAO, as I was told yesterday, is that Houston has only 11 jobs for Vietnam veterans. No, they haven't kept a body count, but our estimate is far higher.

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noun total number of sexual partners

日本語	経験人数 keiken ninzū
Português	quilometragem
Français	tableau de chasse, nombre de partenaires sexuels

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MLA

"body count." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/body%20count. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

body count. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/body%20count

Chicago

"body count." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/body%20count.

BibTeX

@misc{body_count_2026,
  title = {body count},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/body%20count},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}