Definition:
A noun (such as advice, bread, knowledge, luck, spaghetti, and work) that names things that 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: Plural Forms of Nouns.
Examples and Observations:
- "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) - "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
