uncountable

English

Etymology

un- +‎ countable

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʌnˈkaʊntəbəl/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Adjective

uncountable (not comparable)

1. So many as to be incapable of being counted.

   The reasons for our failure were as uncountable as the grains of sand on a beach.

2. (mathematics) Incapable of being put into one-to-one correspondence with the natural numbers or any subset thereof.

   Cantor’s “diagonal proof” shows that the set of real numbers is uncountable.

3. (grammar, of a noun) That cannot be used freely with numbers or the indefinite article, and therefore usually takes no plural form. Example: information.

   Many languages do not distinguish countable nouns from uncountable nouns.

   One meaning in law of the usually uncountable noun "information" is used in the plural and is countable.

Synonyms

• (too many to be counted): countless; see also Thesaurus:innumerable
• (grammar): non-count

Antonyms

• countable

Hypernyms

• (set theory): infinite

Derived terms

• uncountable noun
• uncountable set
• uncountably

Translations

too many to be counted

• Afrikaans: ontelbaar (af)
• Armenian: անհաշվելի (hy) (anhašveli)
• Bulgarian: неизброим (bg) (neizbroim)
• Danish: talrig, utællelig
• Dutch: ontelbaar (nl)
• Estonian: loendamatu
• Finnish: lukematon (fi)
• French: indénombrable (fr) m or f
• Georgian: უთვალავი (utvalavi), ურიცხვი (uricxvi), აურაცხელი (auracxeli), უამრავი (uamravi)
• German: unzählig (de), zahllos (de), unzählbar (de)
• Hindi: बेशुमार (hi) (beśumār), अनगिनत (hi) (anginat), बेहिसाब (hi) (behisāb), अगणित (hi) (agṇit)
• Hungarian: számtalan (hu)
• Italian: innumerevole (it), incalcolabile (it)
• Japanese: 無数の (musū-no), 数えきれないほどの (kazoe kirenai hodo no)
• Latvian: neskaitāmi m pl, neskaitāmas f pl
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Macedonian: непреброив (neprebroiv)
• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: utellelig (no)

  Norwegian Nynorsk: uteljeleg, uteljande (nn)

• Persian: بی‌شمار (bišomâr)
• Polish: niepoliczalny
• Portuguese: incontável (pt) m or f
• Romanian: nenumărabil (ro) m or n
• Russian: бессчётный (ru) (bessčótnyj), бесчи́сленный (ru) (besčíslennyj), неисчисли́мый (ru) (neisčislímyj)
• Slovene: neštet
• Spanish: incontable (es)
• Swedish: oräknelig (sv)
• Turkish: sayılamayan (tr)

mathematics: incapable of being enumerated by natural numbers

• Afrikaans: ontelbaar (af)
• Czech: nespočetný (cs) m
• Danish: overtællelig
• Dutch: overaftelbaar
• Finnish: ylinumeroituva (fi), numeroitumaton (fi)
• French: indénombrable (fr) m or f
• German: überabzählbar (de)
• Hindi: अगणित (hi) (agṇit), अनगिनत (hi) (anginat)
• Hungarian: megszámlálhatatlan (hu)
• Italian: non numerabile (it)
• Japanese: 非可算 (ひかさん, hikasan)
• Macedonian: непреброив (neprebroiv)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: utellbar

• Persian: شمارشناپذیر (fa)
• Polish: nieprzeliczalny
• Portuguese: incontável (pt) m or f
• Romanian: nenumărabil (ro) m or n
• Slovene: nešteven
• Spanish: incontable (es)
• Swedish: ouppräknelig (sv)
• Turkish: hesaplanamaz

linguistics: about a noun which cannot be counted

• Armenian: անհաշվելի (hy) (anhašveli)
• Catalan: incomptable (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不可數／不可数 (zh) (bùkěshǔ), 不可数 (zh) (bùkěshǔ)

• Czech: nespočetný (cs)
• Dutch: ontelbaar (nl)
• Estonian: loendamatu
• Finnish: luvuton (fi)
• French: indénombrable (fr) m or f
• Georgian: უთვლადი (utvladi)
• German: unzählbar (de)
• Hungarian: megszámlálhatatlan (hu), nem számszerű
• Italian: non numerabile (it), invariabile (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 不可算 (ja) (ふかさん, fukasan)
• Latvian: vienskaitlinieks m
• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: utellelig (no)

  Norwegian Nynorsk: uteljeleg, uteljande (nn)

• Persian: شمارشناپذیر (fa)
• Polish: niepoliczalny
• Portuguese: incontável (pt) m or f
• Romanian: nenumărabil (ro) m or n, inumerabil
• Russian: неисчисля́емый (neisčisljájemyj)
• Slovene: nešteven
• Spanish: incontable (es)
• Swedish: icke räknebar (sv), oräknebar (sv)
• Turkish: sayılamaz (tr)

Noun

uncountable (plural uncountables)

1. (grammar) An uncountable noun.
   • 1988, Anna Wierzbicka, The Semantics of Grammar (page 440)

     But inherent uncountables such as 'stuffs' can be conceptualized in two different ways, depending on whether they are viewed in terms of quantity or in terms of quality.

See also

• (mathematics) infinite
• (mathematics) innumerable
• (linguistics) mass noun
• (linguistics) singulare tantum
• Category:Uncountable nouns by language