noun
See also: Noun
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English noun, from Anglo-Norman noun, non, nom, from Latin nōmen (“name; noun”). The grammatical sense in Latin was a semantic loan from Koine Greek ὄνομα (ónoma). Doublet of name and nomen.
Pronunciation
edit- (UK, US) IPA(key): /naʊn/
- (MLE) IPA(key): /næːn/
Audio (US, Inland Northern American): (file) Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -aʊn
Noun
editnoun (plural nouns)
- (grammar, strictly) A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea: one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English.
- (grammar, now rare, loosely) Either a word that can be used to refer to a person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality or idea, or a word that modifies or describes a previous word or its referent; a substantive or adjective, sometimes also including other parts of speech such as numeral or pronoun.
- 1753, Thomas Martin, An Explanation of the Accidence and Grammar To the End of the Syntax in which The Grounds of each Rule in the Syntax are laid down in the plainest Manner. Compiled By way of Question and Answer, For the Use of Schools., London, page 1:
- Q. What is a Noun? A. The Name of a Thing. Q. How many Sorts of Nouns are there? [...] A. A Noun Substantive, and a Noun Adjective.
- 1786, Signor Veneroni, The Complete Italian Master; Containing The best and easiest Rules for attaining that Language, London, page 6:
- A Noun is a word which serves to name and distinguish some thing; [...]. There are two sorts of nouns; one is called a noun substantive, and the other a noun adjective.
- 1852, Leonhard Schmitz, Elementary Latin grammar, Edinburgh, page 123:
- The first part of a compound word is either a noun (substantive, adjective, or numeral), an adverb, or a preposition, and in a very few cases a verb.
- 1856, R. G. Latham, Logic in its application to language, London, page 224:
- Finally, there are many who limit the parts of speech to the noun, the verb, and the particle; referring to the first, the substantive, the adjective, and the pronoun (including the article), to the second the participle, to the third the remainder.
- 1956, Herbert Weir Smyth, Gordon M. Messing, “189. Parts of Speech”, in Greek Grammar, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, page 44:
- Greek has the following parts of speech: substantives, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and particles. In this Grammar noun is used to include both the substantive and the adjective.
- 1894, B. L. Gildersleeve, G. Lodge, Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar, Dover, published 2008, page 9:
- The Parts of Speech are the Noun (Substantive and Adjective), the Pronoun, the Verb, and the Particles (Adverb, Preposition, and Conjunction)[.]
- 1993, Arthur Anthony Macdonell, A Vedic Grammar For Students, 1st Indian edition, Delhi, page 283:
- The parts of which the sentence may consist are either inflected words: the noun (substantive and adjective) and the verb, the participle which shares the nature of both, and the pronoun; or uninflected words: prepositions, adverbs, and conjunctions.
- (computing) An object within a user interface to which a certain action or transformation (i.e., verb) is applied.
- 1992, Brad A. Myers, David C. Smith, Bruce Horn, chapter 19, in Languages for Developing User Interfaces:
- Nouns are the data; verbs are the data transformations, and therefore verbs represent much of the complexity of systems.
- 2000, Jeff Raskin, The Humane Interface, page 59:
- You choose either (1) the verb (change font) first and then select the noun (the paragraph) to which the verb should apply or (2) the noun first and then apply the verb.
- 2005, Barbara J. Grosz, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, volume 149, number 4:
- Thus, in essence, the mouse provides a capability for picking among a set of nouns (for instance, the file to which to apply some action) and verbs (such as "edit" or "insert")
Usage notes
edit- (narrow sense) In English (and in many other languages), a noun can serve as the subject or object of a verb. For example, the English words table and computer are nouns. See Wikipedia’s article “Parts of speech”.
Synonyms
edit- name, nameword
- (sensu stricto) noun substantive, substantive noun, substantive, naming word
Hyponyms
edit- See Thesaurus:noun
Derived terms
editsome may also be hyponyms and should be placed in above section
- action noun
- adnoun
- agent noun
- bare noun
- binary noun
- bloody noun
- improper noun
- invariant noun
- material noun
- noncount noun
- noun adjunct
- noun class
- noun clause
- noun modifier
- noun numeral
- noun of place
- noun phrase
- noun-self pronoun
- noun substantive proper
- numerical noun
- phrasal noun
- post-noun
- predicate noun
- pronoun
- result noun
- root-noun
- root noun
- verbal noun
Related terms
editTranslations
editgrammatical category (narrow sense)
|
grammatical category (broad sense)
|
See also
editVerb
editnoun (third-person singular simple present nouns, present participle nouning, simple past and past participle nouned)
- (transitive) To convert a word to a noun.
- 1974, The Modern Schoolman[1], page 144:
- What is not clear is how the nouning of verbs supports Simon's assumed correspondence between mechanical designing and intentional human responses. Is it the very nouning of verbs which indicates that the above correspondence exists?
- 1992, Lewis Acrelius Froman, Language and Power: Books III, IV, and V:
- For example, that females are different from but equal to males is oxymoronic by virtue of the nouned status of female and male as kinds of persons.
- 2000, Andrew J. DuBrin, The complete idiot's guide to leadership:
- However, too much nouning makes you sound bureaucratic, immature, and verbally challenged. Top executives convert far fewer nouns into verbs than do workers at lower levels.
Translations
editconvert into a noun — see substantivise
See also
edit(converting into or using as another part of speech:)
- adjectivize/adjectivise, adjective, adjectify
- adverbialize/adverbialise, (rare) adverb, (rare) adverbify, adverbize
- nominalize/nominalise, substantivize/substantivise, noun, (rare) nounify, (very rare) substantive
- verbalize/verbalise, (colloquial) verb, verbify
References
editFurther reading
edit- “noun”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
editChuukese
editDeterminer
editnoun
- third person singular possessive; his, hers, its (used with a special class of objects including living things)
- son of, daughter of
Related terms
editChuukese possessive determiners
Small objects, concepts | Large objects, living things | Suffix | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | First person | ai | nei | -ei |
Second person | omw, om | noum | -om | |
Third person | an | noun | -an | |
Plural | First person | äm (exclusive) ach (inclusive) |
nöu̇m (exclusive) nöüch (inclusive) |
-em (exclusive) -ach (inclusive) |
Second person | ämi, ami | noumi | -emi | |
Third person | ar | nour | -er |
Middle English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Anglo-Norman noun, non, nom, from Latin nōmen, a semantic loan from Koine Greek ὄνομα (ónoma). Doublet of name.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editnoun (plural nounes)
- (grammar) noun (part of speech; a category of words including substantives or nouns in the strict sense and adjectives)
- An appellation.
Hyponyms
edit(grammar):
Descendants
edit- English: noun
References
edit- “nǒun(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-03.
Occitan
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editAdverb
editnoun
- (Mistralian) no
Old French
editNoun
editnoun oblique singular, m (oblique plural nouns, nominative singular nouns, nominative plural noun)
- Alternative form of nom
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/aʊn
- Rhymes:English/aʊn/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Grammar
- English terms with rare senses
- English terms with quotations
- en:Computing
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English autological terms
- en:Parts of speech
- Chuukese lemmas
- Chuukese determiners
- Middle English terms borrowed from Anglo-Norman
- Middle English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- Middle English terms derived from Latin
- Middle English doublets
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- enm:Grammar
- Occitan terms inherited from Latin
- Occitan terms derived from Latin
- Occitan lemmas
- Occitan adverbs
- Mistralian Occitan
- Old French lemmas
- Old French nouns
- Old French masculine nouns