noun

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From 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]

Noun[edit]

noun (plural nouns)

  1. (grammar, narrow sense) A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea; one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English.
    An adjective normally describes a noun.
  2. (grammar, now rare, broad sense) 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: Havard 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, First 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.
  3. (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]

Synonyms[edit]

Hyponyms[edit]

  • See Thesaurus:noun

    • Derived terms[edit]

    Related terms[edit]

    Translations[edit]

    See also[edit]

    Verb[edit]

    noun (third-person singular simple present nouns, present participle nouning, simple past and past participle nouned)

    1. (transitive) To convert a word to a noun.
      • 1974, The Modern Schoolman, 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[edit]

    convert into a noun — see substantivise

    References[edit]

    Further reading[edit]

    • noun at OneLook Dictionary Search.

    Anagrams[edit]

    Chuukese[edit]

    Determiner[edit]

    noun

    1. third person singular possessive; his, hers, its (used with a special class of objects including living things)
    2. son of, daughter of

    Related terms[edit]

    Chuukese 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[edit]

    Alternative forms[edit]

    Etymology[edit]

    From Anglo-Norman noun, non, nom, from Latin nōmen, a semantic loan from Koine Greek ὄνομα (ónoma). Doublet of name.

    Pronunciation[edit]

    Noun[edit]

    noun (plural nounes)

    1. (grammar) noun (part of speech; a category of words including substantives or nouns in the strict sense and adjectives)
    2. An appellation.

    Descendants[edit]

    • English: noun

    Hyponyms[edit]

    (grammar):

    References[edit]

    Occitan[edit]

    Alternative forms[edit]

    Etymology[edit]

    From Latin non.

    Adverb[edit]

    noun

    1. (Mistralian) no

    Old French[edit]

    Noun[edit]

    noun m (oblique plural nouns, nominative singular nouns, nominative plural noun)

    1. Alternative form of nom
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