noun

Etymology

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

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /naʊn/
• (MLE) IPA^(key): /næːn/
• (Canada, dialectal) IPA^(key): /nʌʊn/, [nəu̯n]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /næʊn/, [næɔ̯n]

• Audio (US, Inland Northern American):

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊn

Noun

noun (plural nouns)

1. (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.
2. (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.

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")

Verb

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.

See also

(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

• noun on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Further reading

• “noun”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• non-U

Determiner

noun

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

Alternative forms

• none, nown, nowne, noune

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nuːn/

Noun

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.

Alternative forms

• non

Etymology

From Latin non.

Adverb

noun

1. (Mistralian) no

Noun

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

1. Alternative form of nom