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**:**any member of a class of words that typically can be combined with determiners (see determiner sense b) to serve as the subject of a verb, can be interpreted as singular or plural, can be replaced with a pronoun, and refer to an entity, quality, state, action, or concept

## Did you know?

What is a noun?

*Nouns* make up the largest class of words in most languages, including English. A noun is a word that refers to a thing (*book*), a person (*Noah Webster*), an animal (*cat*), a place (*Omaha*), a quality (*softness*), an idea (*justice*), or an action (*yodeling*). It's usually a single word, but not always: *cake*, *shoes*, *school bus*, and *time and a half* are all nouns.

There are a number of different categories of nouns.

There are *common nouns* and *proper nouns*. A common noun refers to a person, place, or thing but is not the name of a particular person, place, or thing. Examples are *animal*, *sunlight*, and *happiness*. A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place, or thing; it usually begins with a capital letter: *Abraham Lincoln*, *Argentina*, and *World War I* are all proper nouns.

A *collective noun* is a noun that names a group of people or things, such as *flock* or *squad*. It's sometimes unclear whether the verb for a collective noun should be singular or plural. In the United States, such nouns as *company*, *team*, *herd*, *public*, and *class*, as well as the names of companies, teams, etc., are treated as singular, but in the United Kingdom they are often treated as plural: (*US*) "The team has been doing well this season." vs. (*British*) "The team have been doing well this season."

*Gerunds* are nouns that are identical to the *present participle* (*-ing* form) of a verb, as in "I enjoy *swimming* more than *running.*"

An *attributive* *noun* is a noun that modifies another noun that immediately follows it, such as *business* in *business meeting*. These nouns look like adjectives but they're not.

For learners of English, the most important feature of a noun is whether it can be counted. A *count noun* is a noun that can be used after *a* or *an* or after a number (or another word that means "more than one"). Count nouns have both singular and plural forms and can be used with both singular and plural verb forms, as with the word *letter* in "A *letter* for you is on the table. *Letters* for you arrive regularly." Sometimes the plural form of a count noun is the same as its singular form, as in "I saw a *deer* in my yard yesterday. There are a lot of *deer* in the woods near my house."

A *mass noun* (or *noncount noun*) refers to something that cannot be counted. Mass nouns are normally not used after the words *a* or *an* or after a number. They have only one form and are used with singular verb forms, as in "*Portuguese* is one of the languages they speak," and "The *information* was unclear."

Some nouns are not count or mass nouns. Nouns which only ever refer to one thing are called *singular* *nouns*: "*Saturn* is the sixth planet from the sun," "We heard a terrible *din* in the alley." And a *plural* *noun* refers to more than one person or thing, or sometimes to something that has two main parts. Plural nouns have only one form and are used with plural verb forms: "*Townspeople* are invited to a forum on the project," "These *scissors* are dull."

A particular noun can have any or all of these kinds of uses.

(

count) I've read that book severaltimes.(

mass)Timeseemed to stop when I saw him for the first time.(

singular) Thetimeis 3:22.(

plural) Fuel costs threetimesas much as it did five years ago.

## Examples of *noun* in a Sentence

*nouns*with a conjunction in between them. —Jen Chaney,

*Vulture*, 28 June 2024 Nearly two years later, deepfake is a generic

*noun*for video manipulated or fabricated with artificial intelligence software. —Tom Simonite,

*WIRED*, 7 Oct. 2019 To Shibutani, who had spent the war imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp in California, rumor was more of a verb than a

*noun*, a collective process of making sense of the world. —

*science.org*, 30 Oct. 2024 As with Uber gradually becoming a

*noun*, verb and adjective to the masses, the bet is that with time the obscure qualities of crypto will be anything but. —John Tamny,

*Forbes*, 17 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for

*noun*

## Word History

## Phrases Containing *noun*

## Dictionary Entries Near *noun*

## Cite this Entry

“Noun.” *Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary*, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noun. Accessed 23 Nov. 2024.

## Kids Definition

noun

noun**:**a word that is the name of something (as a person, animal, place, thing, quality, idea, or action) and that is typically used in a sentence as subject or object of a verb or as object of a preposition

## More from Merriam-Webster on *noun*

Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for *noun*

Nglish: Translation of *noun* for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of *noun* for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about *noun*

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