Nouns
Check out a recent post I did for Vermont Reads Institute. A noun (from Latin nōmen, literally name) is a word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas. However, noun is not a semantic category, so that it cannot be characterized in terms of its meaning. A noun is a part of speech that names a person, place, thing, idea, action or quality. All nouns can be classified into two groups of nouns: common or proper. Proper nouns refer to the individual name of a person, place or thing. Examples might include Barcelona, Leonardo da Vinci, or Toyota Corolla. Wondering what is a noun? They are a person, place or thing, but can be a bit more in-depth than that. Make understanding easy with noun explanations.
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Don’t Settle for Writing that Blends in When You Can Easily Stand Out
Perhaps it goes without saying, but your choice of words impacts your message as much as your research and thesis.
Words alwaysmatter.
Did you notice anything about the two sentences above? They said the same thing, but in vastly different ways. Despite sharing the same message, they read and feel dramatically different.
No matter what you’re writing, you need to know your audience and write in the language and style that reaches them. In many fields, this goes beyond preference and into the realm of requirement, with style books determining both format and style.
Luckily, you don’t have to navigate this alone. This list of nouns can help you choose the right words, and our library of academic resources is always available to help with formatting and citations inMLA format and many more styles.
How can a noun list help? This part of speech is used more often than any other; research into the most frequently used words returns a list of nouns across all disciplines of writing. Expanding your vocabulary in this one area will give you a deep well of words from which you can draw to meet the style of any audience.
Explore the nouns list in each category for examples to use in everyday writing as well as synonyms for work that requires a more robust vocabulary. You’ll also find definitions, distinctions, and guidance to help you learn and understand each form for each list of nouns.
Common Noun List
The first list of nouns highlights the distinction between common and proper nouns, which is among the easiest to remember: the common form is not capitalized, giving a big indication of which noun type you’re working with. A common noun list names, in general terms, a person, place, thing, or idea. This is why you’ll begin with a common nouns list and then move to a proper nouns list. You’ll start with a list of common nouns that shows the sheer volume of common nouns; you’ll build your vocabulary with a higher-level, academic list of common nouns thereafter.
For that reason, this list of common nouns is separated into two parts. On the left, you’ll find a noun examples list for everyday use. On the right of the common nouns list, however, you’ll see an alternative word, similar in meaning but higher in grade level. These advanced words offer more specificity while maintaining their status as a common noun. A typical common noun list includes both types in one list, but the distinction of levels in this common noun list makes it easier to determine which list of nouns is more appropriate for your style of writing.
| Everyday Words | Advanced Words |
|---|---|
| mountain | summit |
| building | edifice |
| ship | schooner |
| house | domicile |
| rain | precipitation |
| cat | feline |
Proper Nouns List
The second nouns list is for proper nouns. Particularity defines the difference between a common noun list and a proper list of nouns. While a nouns list with common nouns names something generally, their proper cousins are more specific and assign a proper name. Words in the proper form are capitalized.
There are instances where a word can be used in a nouns list that is both common and proper. For example, the west end of the park is common, whereas the West End, referring to a specific part of London, is considered proper. When it gets tricky to determine whether or not to capitalize, our grammar andplagiarism checker could help you make the right call.
Your style guide may also require capitalization of words that are not otherwise considered proper. APA format, for example, capitalizes factor names in a factor analysis. Check out our free resources to help you format your next paper.
Specificity separates this list of nouns. On the left are the same words from the common noun list above. To their right is a noun examples list of their equivalent in proper form.
| Common | Proper |
|---|---|
| mountain | Mount Everest |
| building | Empire State Building |
| ship | Titanic |
| house | The White House |
| rain | Hurricane Miranda |
| country | India |
Notice that all of the words on the right side of the noun examples list are capitalized since they are proper nouns.
Concrete Nouns List
The nouns list above is made up entirely of words that could also be on this concrete noun list. Concrete nouns are tangible things that are perceivable by the senses. The words on this list can also be further distinguished by whether they are a part of a list of nouns that are countable or a list of nouns that are non-countable. This resource further explores the classes by their count and noncount (mass) forms, if you’re looking tofind more info.
This list of concrete nouns is divided into count (on the left) and noncount/mass (on the right). Notice that these concrete nouns differ from those words found in an abstract noun list by being countable as opposed to measurable like in an abstract nouns list.
| Count | Mass |
|---|---|
| branch | wood |
| desk | furniture |
| burger | meat |
| snowball | snow |
| dollar | money |
Abstract Nouns List
Abstract words exist on the opposite end of the noun spectrum as concrete nouns. In this list of abstract nouns, these words name concepts, beliefs, qualities, attributes, and ideas. A concrete noun is tangible, while an abstract word (like those on this abstract noun list) are without physical properties. Abstract terms are typically not countable, though they can be measured. For example, you cannot count wealth, though you can measure it with phrases such as a lot of or a lack of.
This list of abstract nouns shares its structure with the common nouns list above, with a generic abstract noun list for everyday use found on the left. The right side of the abstract noun list offers a similarly defined advanced word. An abstract nouns list highlights words that are often considered the “idea” part of the typical noun definition
| Everyday Words | Advanced Words |
|---|---|
| poise | aplomb |
| inactivity | languor |
| failure | inefficacy |
| courage | valiance |
| belief | credence |
Collective Nouns List
This next list of nouns is of collective words, meaning those that name a collection taken as a whole. This nouns list of collective nouns typically uses a list of common nouns in its creation. This collective noun list therefore contains many words from what you would consider a common nouns list. Collective nouns rarely include a list of abstract nouns, but often include a concrete nouns list. Below is a list of nouns separated by person/animal, place, and thing. As words appearing in a list of nouns are typically used as part of a phrase, complete phrases are included for clarity.
| Person/Animal | Place | Thing/Idea |
|---|---|---|
| jury of peers | chain of islands | armada of ship |
| colony of bats | suite of rooms | deck of cards |
| army of frogs | galaxy of stars | thicket of trees |
| faculty of academics | range of mountains | glossary of words |
| slate of candidates | union of states | round of applause |
Possessive Nouns List
When you need to show possession or belonging, you need a list of possessive nouns. This nouns list highlights a list of possessive nouns that demonstrate belonging by altering a base word. Several factors determine the rules for displaying ownership. To illustrate these differences, the list of possessive nouns below is separated into both a singular possessive noun list and a plural possessive noun list, with examples provided in the context of a phrase.
| Singular Possessive | Plural Possessive |
|---|---|
| America’s laws | Americans’ ideals |
| the baby’s bib | the four babies’ bibs |
| the woman’s coat | the women’s coats |
| Phyllis’s dog | the Smiths’ dog |
| the clown’s nose | the clowns’ noses |
Possessive Nouns
In this list of possessive nouns, it’s important to note where the apostrophe is in each example.
Compound Noun List
This list of nouns is for nouns made up of two or more words. This list of nouns is called compound. Compound nouns can be combined into one new word (closed form), joined by hyphens (hyphenated form), or joined together in meaning while appearing separately (open form). In this compound noun list, you’ll find them separated by these three categories. Typically, a compound noun is made of words also found in a list of concrete nouns and not in an abstract nouns list.
| Closed Form | Hyphenated Form | Open Form |
|---|---|---|
| toothpaste | dry-cleaning | swimming pool |
| fireflies | check-up | full moon |
| checkout | mother-in-law | washing machine |
| sunrise | passer-by | bus stop |
| hairstyle | six-year-old | middle class |
Published March 5, 2019. Updated June 17, 2020.
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t;, 'that' change to 'these', 'those' in the plural, and the indefinite article 'a', 'an' is either omitted or changes to 'some'. In French and German, the definite articles have gender distinctions in the singular but not the plural. In Spanish and Portuguese, both definite and indefinite articles are inflected for gender and number, e.g. Portuguese o, a 'the' (singular, masc./fem.), os, as 'the' (plural, masc./fem.); um, uma 'a(n)' (singular, masc./fem.), uns, umas 'some' (plural, masc./fem.)In the Finnish sentence Yöt ovat pimeitä 'Nights are dark', each word referring to the plural noun yöt 'nights' ('night' = yö) is pluralized (night-PL is-PL dark-PL-partitive).
Exceptions
Sometimes, grammatical number will not represent the actual quantity. For example, in Ancient Greek neuter plurals took a singular verb. The plural form of a pronoun may also be applied to a single individual as a sign of importance, respect or generality, as in the pluralis majestatis, the T-V distinction, and the generic 'you', found in many languages, or, in English, when using the singular 'they' for gender-neutrality.
Collective nouns
A collective noun is a word that designates a group of objects or beings regarded as a whole, such as 'flock', 'team', or 'corporation'. Although many languages treat collective nouns as singular, in others they may be interpreted as plural. In British English, phrases such as the committee are meeting are common (the so-called agreement in sensu 'in meaning', that is, with the meaning of a noun, rather than with its form). The use of this type of construction varies with dialect and level of formality.
Types of number
Singular versus plural
In most languages with grammatical number, nouns, and sometimes other parts of speech, have two forms, the singular, for one instance of a concept, and the plural, for more than one instance. Usually, the singular is the unmarked form of a word, and the plural is obtained by inflecting the singular. This is the case in English: car/cars, box/boxes, man/men. There may be exceptional nouns whose plural is identical to the singular: one fish / two fish.
Collective versus singulative
Some languages differentiate between a basic form, the collective, which is indifferent in respect to number, and a more complicated derived form for single entities, the singulative, for example Japanese and some Brythonic languages. A rough example in English is 'snowflake', which may be considered a singulative form of 'snow' (although English has no productive process of forming singulative nouns, and no singulative modifiers). In other languages, singulatives can be productively formed from collective nouns; e.g. Standard Arabic حجر ḥajar 'stone' → حجرة ḥajarā '(individual) stone', بقر baqar 'cattle' → بقرة baqarā '(single) cow'
Dual number
The distinction between a 'singular' number (one) and a 'plural' number (more than one) found in English is not the only possible classification. Another one is 'singular' (one), 'dual' (two) and 'plural' (more than two). Dual number existed in Proto-Indo-European, persisted in many of the now extinct ancient Indo-European languages that descended from itSanskrit, Ancient Greek and Gothic for exampleand can still be found in a few modern Indo-European languages such as Icelandic and Slovene language. Many more modern Indo-European languages show residual traces of the dual, as in the English distinctions both versus all and better versus best.
Many Semitic languages also have dual number.
Trial number
The trial number is a grammatical number referring to 'three items', in contrast to 'singular' (one item), 'dual' (two items), and 'plural' (four or more items). Tolomako, Lihir and Tok Pisin (though only in its pronouns) have trial number.
There is a hierarchy between number categories: No language distinguishes a trial unless having a dual, and no language has dual without a plural (Greenberg 1972).
Some languages, such as Latvian, have a nullar form, used for nouns that refer to zero items. Other languages use either the singular or the plural form for zero. English, along with the other Germanic languages and most Romance languages, uses the plural. French normally uses the singular, instead.
Adjectives
Distributive plural
Distributive plural number, for many instances viewed as independent individuals (e.g. in Navajo).
In most languages, the singular is formally unmarked, whereas the plural is marked in some way. Other languages, most notably the Bantu languages, mark both the singular and the plural, for instance Swahili (see example above). The third logical possibility, rarely found in languages, is unmarked plural contrasting with marked singular.
Elements marking number may appear on nouns and pronouns in dependent-marking languages or on verbs and adjectives in head-marking languages.
Plural Nouns
English
(dependent-marking)Western Apache
(head-marking)Paul is teaching the cowboy.Paul idilohí yiłchígóaah.Paul is teaching the cowboys.Paul idilohí yiłchídagóaah.
In the English sentence above, the plural suffix -s is added to the noun cowboy. In the Western Apache, a head-marking language, equivalent, a plural prefix da- is added to the verb yiłchígóaah 'he is teaching him', resulting in yiłchídagóaah 'he is teaching them' while noun idilohí 'cowboy' is unmarked for number.
Number particles
Plurality is sometimes marked by a specialized number particle (or number word). This is frequent in Australian and Austronesian languages. An example from Tagalog is the word mga: compare bahay 'house' with mga bahay 'houses'. In Kapampangan, certain nouns optionally denote plurality by secondary stress: ing laláki 'man' and ing babái 'woman' become ding láláki 'men' and ding bábái 'women'.
Conclusion
We have investigated the noun, the main part of speech in English grammar. We chose the noun as the theme of our course work because we interested in it. We used different kind of references to investigate the noun. Nouns can be classified further as count nouns, which name anything that can be counted (four books, two continents, a few dishes, a dozen buildings); mass nouns (or non-count nouns), which name something that can't be counted (water, air, energy, blood); and collective nouns, which can take a singular form but are composed of more than one individual person or items (jury, team, class, committee, herd). We should note that some words can be either a count noun or a non-count noun depending on how they're being used in a sentence. Whether or not a noun is uncountable is determined by its meaning: an uncountable noun represents something which tends to be viewed as a whole or as a single entity, rather than as one of a number of items which can be counted as individual units. Singular verb forms are used with uncountable nouns. Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot 'count' them. For example, we cannot count 'milk'. We can count 'bottles of milk' or 'litres of milk', but we cannot count 'milk' itself.We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: 'pen'. We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens.We cannot say that it is finished investigation of this theme, because we are going to continue its investigation in our diploma work.
Bibliography
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- Corbett, G. (2000). Number. Cambridge University Press.
- Greenberg, Joseph H. (1972) Numeral classifiers and substantival number: Problems in the genesis of a linguistic type. Working Papers on Language Universals (Stanford University) 9. 1-39.
- Laycock, Henry. (2005) 'Mass nouns, Count nouns and Non-count nouns' Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier.
- Laycock, Henry. (2006) Words without Objects. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Merrifield, William (1959). Classification of Kiowa nouns. International Journal of American Linguistics, 25, 269-271.
- Mithun, Marianne (1999). The languages of native North America (pp. 81-82, 444-445). Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-23228-7.
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- Weigel, William F. (1993). Morphosyn