noun

Definition:

The part of speech (or word class) that is used to name a person, place, thing, quality, or action. Adjective: nominal. A noun can function as the subject or object of a verb, the object of a preposition, or an appositive. See also:

• Noun Clause
• Noun Phrase
• Plural Forms of Nouns
• Notes on Nouns

Types of Nouns:

• Abstract Noun & Concrete Noun
• Animate Noun & Inanimate Noun
• Collective Noun
• Common Noun & Proper Noun
• Compound Noun
• Count Noun & Mass Noun
• Verbal Noun

Etymology:

From the Greek, "name, noun"

Examples and Observations:

• "You must hear the bird's song without attempting to render it into nouns and verbs."
  (Ralph Waldo Emerson)



• "One of the glories of English simplicity is the possibility of using the same word as noun and verb."
  (Edward Sapir)



• "In parsing nouns, traditional grammar insisted on noting gender as well as number and case. Modern grammars disregard this criterion, recognizing that gender has no grammatical role in English. They do however find good grammatical reasons for respecting the importance of several other traditional contrasts, especially proper vs common, and abstract vs concrete, and have developed the contrast between mass and count nouns into a major dimension of subclassification."
  (David Crystal, Cambridge Encylopedia of the English Language, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003)



• "Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place."
  (William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White, The Elements of Style)



• "Houston, we have a problem."
  (Apollo 13)



• "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."
  (Wall Street)



• "I type 101 words a minute. But it's in my own language."
  (Mitch Hedberg)



• "I recently went to a new doctor and noticed he was located in something called the Professional Building. I felt better right away."
  (George Carlin)

Pronunciation: nown