tally marks
Fives in bundles
Tally marks are a simple counting system where vertical lines represent units, typically grouped in fives—four upright strokes crossed by a fifth diagonal line.
Used for keeping score or counting items as they occur: She kept tally marks on a napkin to track how many drinks he'd ordered.
The system appears across cultures and requires no numeracy beyond one-to-one correspondence.
- strokesGentle touches, swimming styles
- tick marksSmall lines indicating intervals
- tallyingSumming items systematically
- countingDetermining quantity sequentially
- additionJoining quantities mathematically
quipu · cave · inventory tracking · symbols · crossed off · chalk · pen and paper · five · arithmetic · slash · bundles · line · bar · prisoner · days · scratch · hash · scorekeeping
- counterscounter, counters, click counter, clicker, hand counter
- marks & markersnotches, cattle brands, hallmarks, watermarks, boundary stones
- Early Mathcounting, numbers, addition, subtraction, zero
- counting methodscount, counting, skip counting, counting by twos, enumeration
- markingsspots, specks, speckles, lines, dots
- Scoresheet Itemsscorecards, box scores, win-loss record, bonus points, penalties
tally marksArabic numerals
Decimal notation system
numerals · decimal notation · Roman numerals · scientific notation · binary code
tally marksspreadsheet
Tabular data organizer
running total · calculator · calculator display · odometer · database entry