Definition · Plain-language
Noun
A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea — such as teacher, London, book or freedom. It is one of the main parts of speech.
The step most authors miss
Doing CRediT right? Don’t stop at the statement.
A CRediT statement credits you inside one paper. The recognition CRediT was built for happens when those roles are tied to you, persistently. Sign in with your ORCID — free — and claim your CRediT contributions on casrai.org, the home of the standard. They become a verified, portable part of your identity, not a line that disappears into one PDF.
Free: claim your contributions, then export a journal-ready CRediT statement, schema.org structured data, JATS XML, CSV or BibTeX — and preview your public profile. A membership publishes that profile publicly and verifies the journals you serve.
What nouns name
A noun is a naming word. It can name a person (nurse, Maria), a place (school, Paris), a thing (chair, phone), an animal (cat), or an abstract idea or quality that cannot be touched (courage, time, happiness). This range is why "person, place or thing" — the schoolroom definition — is usually expanded to include ideas. Nouns are the most numerous category of words in English. They typically function as the subject of a verb or the object of a verb or preposition, and most can be counted or made plural, though some, such as water or information, cannot. Determiners like a, the, this and my frequently sit in front of them.
Types of noun
Nouns fall into several overlapping types. Common nouns name general things (city, dog) and are not capitalised, while proper nouns name specific people, places or organisations (London, NASA) and always are. Concrete nouns name things perceptible to the senses (rain, music); abstract nouns name ideas and qualities (justice, fear). Countable nouns can be pluralised and counted (one book, two books); uncountable (mass) nouns cannot (advice, furniture). Collective nouns name groups as a unit (team, committee, flock). A single noun can belong to more than one of these categories at once — "team", for instance, is a common, concrete, countable and collective noun.
How nouns behave in sentences
Nouns change form and position to do grammatical work. Most form a plural by adding -s or -es (cats, boxes), with some irregular plurals (child–children, mouse–mice). They show possession with an apostrophe (the teacher’s desk). A noun or group of words acting as a noun is a noun phrase ("the old wooden table"), which can fill any slot a single noun can. Nouns also pair with verbs in subject–verb agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb. Recognising the noun in each clause — the thing being talked about — is often the first step in analysing how a sentence is built.
Key facts
At a glance
- Definition: a word naming a person, place, thing, animal, quality or idea
- Roles: subject or object of a sentence
- Common vs proper: general (city) vs specific and capitalised (London)
- Concrete vs abstract: sensible (rain) vs idea (justice)
- Countable vs uncountable: books vs information
- Often introduced by: a, the, this, my and other determiners
Common misconceptions
What people often get wrong
Often heard: A noun can only name a person, place or thing you can touch.
Actually: Nouns also name ideas and qualities — abstract nouns such as freedom, honesty and time. Anything that can be named, concrete or abstract, can be a noun.
Often heard: All nouns can be made plural by adding an s.
Actually: Uncountable (mass) nouns such as information, advice and furniture have no normal plural, and several nouns are irregular, such as child–children and foot–feet.
Often heard: A capitalised word in a sentence is always a proper noun.
Actually: Capitalisation also marks the first word of a sentence and other categories. Proper nouns name specific entities (London, Microsoft); a capital letter alone does not make a word a proper noun.
Going deeper
