proper noun

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

proper noun (plural proper nouns)

Examples
Mike, London, United Nations, Europe

1. (grammar) A word or phrase that is a noun denoting a particular person, place, organization, ship, animal, event, or other individual entity.

   Synonyms: proper name, nomen proprium, noun substantive proper, proper substantive, substantive proper, selfname

   Antonyms: common noun, common name, appellative noun, nomen appellativum

Usage notes

Main appendix: English proper nouns

In English, a proper noun is normally not preceded by an article or limiting modifier and is normally written with an initial capital letter. However, some proper nouns are preceded by articles (such as the Netherlands) and some are uncapitalized (kd lang), and many common (non-proper) nouns are also capitalized, like European. Some references erroneously conflate whether a noun is common or proper with whether it is capitalized or not, although these are not the same.

Hypernyms

• noun (substantive, substantive noun)

Translations

the name of a particular person, place, organization or other individual entity

• Albanian: emër i përveçëm m
• Amharic: የተፀውኦ ስም (yätäṣ́äwʾo səm)
• Arabic: عَلَم (ar) (ʕalam)
• Armenian: հատուկ անուն (hy) (hatuk anun)
• Asturian: nome propiu (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: xüsusi isim
• Bashkir: яңғыҙлыҡ исем (yañğıźlıq isem)
• Belarusian: ула́снае імя́ n (ulásnaje imjá), імя́ ўла́снае n (imjá ŭlásnaje)
• Bulgarian: со́бствено и́ме n (sóbstveno íme)
• Catalan: nom propi (ca) m
• Cebuano: pangpiho
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 專有名詞／专有名词 (zyun¹ jau⁵ ming⁴ ci⁴)

  Mandarin: 專有名詞／专有名词 (zh) (zhuānyǒu míngcí), 固有名詞／固有名词 (zh) (gùyǒu míngcí)

• Czech: vlastní jméno (cs) n, proprium (cs) n
• Danish: proprium (da) n, egennavn (da) n
• Dutch: eigennaam (nl) m
• Esperanto: propra nomo
• Estonian: pärisnimi
• Faroese: sernavn n
• Finnish: erisnimi (fi), propri (fi)
• French: nom propre (fr) m
• Galician: nome propio (gl) m
• Georgian: საკუთარი სახელი (saḳutari saxeli), საკუთარი არსებითი სახელი (saḳutari arsebiti saxeli)
• German: Eigenname (de) m, Nomen proprium (de) n
• Greek: κύριο όνομα (el) n (kýrio ónoma)

  Ancient Greek: ὄνομα κύριον n (ónoma kúrion)

• Hebrew: שֵׁם פְּרָטִי (he) m (shem pratí)
• Hindi: नामवाचक संज्ञा m (nāmvācak sañjñā)
• Hungarian: tulajdonnév (hu)
• Icelandic: eiginnafn n, sérnafn (is) n
• Indonesian: nomina diri
• Interlingua: nomine proprie (ia)
• Irish: ainmfhocal dílis m
• Italian: nome proprio (it) m
• Japanese: 固有名詞 (ja) (こゆうめいし, koyūmeishi)
• Kalmyk: эврә нерн (evrä nern)
• Kazakh: жалқы есім (jalqy esım)
• Khmer: អសាធារណនាម (ʼaʼsaathiə niəm), នាមអសាធារណ៍ (niəm ʼaʼsaathiə)
• Korean: 고유명사(固有名詞) (ko) (goyumyeongsa)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: serenav (ku) m, navê şexsî (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: жеке ат (jeke at)
• Lao: ວິສາມັນນາມ (wi sā man nām)
• Latin: nōmen prōprium n
• Latvian: īpašvārds (lv) m
• Lithuanian: tikrinis daiktavardis (lt) m
• Luxembourgish: Eegennumm (lb) m
• Macedonian: ли́чна и́менка f (líčna ímenka)
• Malay: kata nama khas (ms)
• Malayalam: സംജ്ഞാനാമം (ml) (sañjñānāmaṁ)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: оноосон нэр (mn) (onooson ner)

• Norman: nom propre m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: egennavn (no) n

  Nynorsk: eigennamn n

• Occitan: nom pròpri m
• Old English: āgen nama m
• Pashto: خاص نوم m (xās num)
• Persian:

  Dari: اِسْمِ خَاصّ (fa) (ism-i xāss)

  Iranian Persian: اِسْمِ خاصّ (fa) (esm-e xâss)

• Polish: nazwa własna (pl) f
• Portuguese: substantivo próprio (pt) m, nome próprio m
• Romanian: nume propriu (ro) n, substantiv propriu (ro) n
• Russian: и́мя со́бственное (ru) n (ímja sóbstvennoje), о́ним (ru) m (ónim)
• Scots: proper noon
• Scottish Gaelic: ainmear sònrachaidh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: властита и̏меница f, лична и̏меница f, особна и̏меница f

  Roman: vlastita ȉmenica f, lična ȉmenica f, osobna ȉmenica f

• Slovak: vlastné meno n, proprium n
• Slovene: lastno ime (sl) n
• Spanish: nombre propio (es) m
• Swedish: egennamn (sv) n
• Tagalog: pangngalang pantangi (tl)
• Tajik: исми хос (ismi xos)
• Tatar: ялгызлык исем (tt) (yalgızlıq isem)
• Telugu: సంజ్ఞానామము (sañjñānāmamu), సంజ్ఞావిశేష్యము (sañjñāviśēṣyamu)
• Thai: วิสามานยนาม (th) (wí-sǎa-maan-yá-naam)
• Turkish: özel ad (tr), özel isim (tr)
• Turkmen: has at (tk)
• Udmurt: асним (asńim)
• Ukrainian: вла́сна на́зва f (vlásna názva), вла́сне ім'я́ n (vlásne imʺjá)
• Urdu: اِسْمِ خاص (ur) m (ism-i xās), اِسْمِ مَعْرِفَہ (ur) m (ism-i ma'rifa)
• Uyghur: خاس ئىسىم (xas isim), خاس نام (xas nam), خاس ئات (xas at)
• Uzbek: atoqli ot
• Vietnamese: danh từ riêng
• Welsh: enw priod m

See also

• Appendix:English proper nouns
• Appendix:Glossary

Further reading

• “proper noun”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “proper noun”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “proper noun”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “proper noun” (US) / “proper noun” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “proper noun”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “proper noun”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• proper noun in Britannica Dictionary