Wiktionary

uncountable

English edit

Etymology edit

un- +‎ countable

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ʌnˈkaʊntəbəl/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Adjective edit

uncountable (not comparable)

  1. So many as to be incapable of being counted.
    The reasons for our failure were as uncountable as the grains of sand on a beach.
  2. (mathematics) Incapable of being put into one-to-one correspondence with the natural numbers or any subset thereof.
    Cantor’s “diagonal proof” shows that the set of real numbers is uncountable.
  3. (grammar, of a noun) That cannot be used freely with numbers or the indefinite article, and therefore usually takes no plural form. Example: information.
    Many languages do not distinguish countable nouns from uncountable nouns.
    One meaning in law of the usually uncountable noun "information" is used in the plural and is countable.

Synonyms edit

Antonyms edit

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Translations edit

Noun edit

uncountable (plural uncountables)

  1. (grammar) An uncountable noun.
    • 1988, Anna Wierzbicka, The Semantics of Grammar, page 440:
      But inherent uncountables such as 'stuffs' can be conceptualized in two different ways, depending on whether they are viewed in terms of quantity or in terms of quality.

See also edit

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