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Specifically, I am trying to say something like "a semester's length is
counted in months" in order to imply how short it is as compared to, say, your
whole life. When I tried to look this up in my online dictionary, I could not
find anything. There was an entry for "count in" but it was definitely a
separate meaning ("count me in!")
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translation counters
How can I say "counted in (specific unit)"?
If it just means “One semester is a few months long,” it can be 学期の長さは数か月だ. “A
few months” in English is probably two or three months, but 数か月 in Japanese
can be somewhat longer. See question “[Why use 数年 in
あれから１０数年?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/7017)” for more about this
usage of 数.

A related expression, 月単位の時間, has a similar meaning, but it refers to the
abstract notion of time directly. For example:

> この作品の完成には月単位の時間がかかる。 It takes months to finish this work.

However, in your case, 学期の長さは月単位の時間だ is probably not incorrect, but it sounds
awkward, probably because 長さ and 時間 refer to the same thing.
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There is also 何ヶ月, as in

> 学期の長さは何ヶ月という長さだ。

which I think fits even better for your purpose. 数ヶ月 is more a specific length
in time, although you choose not to specify the length. 何ヶ月 means that you are
counting in months, but have no real estimate of how many months.

何 works for "counting in" with other counters, e.g.

> 何時間も待ってた。  
>  I waited for hours.
>
> cf. 数時間待ってた。  
>  I waited for several hours.
>
> 海老煎餅大好きだ。何枚も何枚も食べちゃった。  
>  I love (Japanese) prawn crackers. I couldn't stop eating.
>
> ビザは何日間って問題じゃなくて、何週間もかかっちゃった。  
>  Getting my visa wasn't a matter of days, but a matter of weeks.

Edit: Since you seemed to be asking something different, the way for
translating "is counted in" is で数える, as in

> 魚は「尾」で数えられます。  
>  You can count fish with the counter word 尾.
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