noun

 
Pronunciation: /naʊn/

noun

Grammar
  • a word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things (common noun), or to name a particular one of these (proper noun).

Derivatives

nounal

adjective

Origin:

late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French, from Latin nomen 'name'

Grammar

Nouns are words used to identify people, places, things, and ideas. As a grammatical class, nouns satisfy most or all of the following tests: Number: they have a singular and a plural form: one car, two cars one child, several children Determiners: they can be preceded by a, an, or the: a child an apple the cars Modifiers: they can be modified by an adjective placed before them: a young child a ripe apple the new cars Phrases: they can form the headword of a noun phrase: a ripe red apple ready to eat the new cars on the forecourt Nouns fall into a number of broad groups, each of which has a separate entry in this A–Z: