Definition:
A noun (such as advice, bread, knowledge, luck, spaghetti, and work) that names things that in English cannot be counted.
A mass noun (also known as a noncount noun) is used only in the singular. Many abstract nouns are uncountable, but not all uncountable nouns are abstract. Contrast with count noun.
See also:
Examples and Observations:
- "Fun does not have a size."
(Bart Simpson in The Simpsons, 2001) - "Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it."
(Albert Einstein) - "Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back."
(Eugene O'Neill) - "After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."
(Aldous Huxley) - "I seek constantly to improve my manners and graces, for they are the sugar to which all are attracted."
(Og Mandino) - "Some nouns can serve as both count and mass nouns. The noun war is an example. In War is ghastly, war is a mass noun, whereas in The wars between Rome and Carthage were ruinous, war is used as a count noun."
(James R. Hurford, Grammar: A Student's Guide. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994) - "English nouns denoting things that cannot be counted, such as wine, coffee, and intelligence, do not easily form plurals in their central senses. Some of them, however, can be pluralized when they have transferred senses, such as varieties (Rhone wines), measures (four coffees), or embodiments (alien intelligences). You should not overuse such unusual plurals, however, since they can easily become pretentious, as they do in those silly signs announcing ice creams and hair stylings."
(R.L. Trask, Mind the Gaffe! Harper, 2006) - "Non-count nouns are often called 'mass' nouns. We have preferred 'non-count,' in part because it reflects clearly the test we use for determining whether a noun is count or non-count, in part because 'mass' is not suitable for the full range of non-count nouns. The term 'mass' is readily applicable with nouns like water or coal that denote substances but it is less evident that it applies transparently to abstract non-count nouns such as knowledge, spelling, work."
(Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey Pullum, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002)
Also Known As: noncount noun, uncountable noun
