count noun


Also found in: Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Related to count noun: mass noun, common noun

countable noun

Countable nouns (also known as count nouns) are nouns that can be considered as individual, separable items, which means that we are able to count them with numbers—we can have one, two, five, 15, 100, and so on. We can also use them with the indefinite articles a and an (which signify a single person or thing) or with the plural form of the noun.
Countable nouns contrast with uncountable nouns (also known as non-count or mass nouns), which cannot be separated and counted as individual units or elements. Uncountable nouns cannot take an indefinite article, nor can they be made plural.
Continue reading...

count noun

n.
A common noun, such as frog, bicycle, or concept, that can form a plural or occur with an indefinite article, with numerals, or with such terms as many. It is often contrasted with mass noun. See Usage Note at collective noun.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

count noun

n
1. (Grammar) linguistics logic a noun that can be qualified by the indefinite article, and may be used in the plural, as telephone and thing but not airs and graces or bravery. Compare mass noun, sortal
2. (Logic) linguistics logic a noun that can be qualified by the indefinite article, and may be used in the plural, as telephone and thing but not airs and graces or bravery. Compare mass noun, sortal
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

count′ noun`


n.
a noun, as apple, table, or birthday, that typically refers to a countable thing and that in English can be used in both the singular and the plural and can be preceded by the indefinite article a or an and by numerals. Compare mass noun.
[1950–55]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun 1. count noun - a noun that forms plurals
noun - a content word that can be used to refer to a person, place, thing, quality, or action
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
nom dénombrable
telbaar substantieftelbaar zelfstandig naamwoord
substantivo contável
References in periodicals archive ?
So while "risk" can be used as a count noun, in this case it is used as a noncount noun.
Grammar Moses: Less is more. Except when fewer is more
* Use the word number for the quantity of a count noun, a quantity considered as several discrete items.
Appendix B: commonly misused words
Three properties generally characterize the determinative category (D): (a) D cannot combine with the or a or with each other; (b) D can combine with a singular count noun to form a grammatical noun phrase (NP); (c) D can occur as a head in the partitive construction (i.e., HEAD + of + DEFINITE NP) (p.
On determinatives and the category-function distinction: a reply to Brett Reynolds
The count noun referents of feminine pronouns in the Orkney material range from writin 'a document' to guinea, 'gun', ball 'bullet', silk (a specific silk garment), knife, table, coat, a piece of peat, a glass, egg, cubbie 'straw basket' and cap.
'I'll cross dat brig whin I come til him': grammatical gender in the Orkney and Shetland dialects of Scots
In a compound with a singular count noun as head, such as dog catcher, English requires a determiner to form a noun phrase.
Getting squishy
Without access to the front matter of the larger NOAD, users may not realize that "in sing." signals a count noun that is not usually pluralized in a particular sense (an ear for music; the promise of peace) or that "submodifier" labels an adverb that modifies an adjective or another adverb (as shown at too but--oddly--not at very).
Two new kids on the block. (Bibliographia)
In Figure 11, Luke has guessed correctly the plural form of "city," as well as its syntatic subcategory (count noun) and semantics.
Knowledge and natural language processing
Each argues that a set of surprising syntactic data compels us to recognize names as a special variety of count noun. This data set, they say, reveals that names' interaction with the determiner system differs from that of common count nouns only with respect to the definite article "the." They conclude that this special distribution of names is best explained by the-predicativism, the view that posits the existence of the null-determiner "the" preceding bare singular names.
The Philosophical Review: Vol. 126, No. 2, April 2017
English requires that an article precede the singular count noun earthquake.
Chapter 31 English as a second language
We can thus have (45a), a simple event noun, necessarily count; (45b), a count noun without an event reading; (45c), a mass noun without Div, but never (45d), a mass simple event noun, because Ev selects Div.
On a class of syntactic bracketing paradoxes and its consequences
Linguistically, we distinguish between thing terms and stuff terms, where, roughly, "thing" is a count noun, and "stuff" is a mass noun.
American Philosophical Quarterly: Vol. 46, No. 1, January 2009
Moreover, colloquially, at least, and given the appropriate circumstances, almost any count noun can be given an appropriate collective interpretation if quantified with less.
No less than four notes on less

Dictionary browser ?
Full browser ?