mass noun

English

Noun

mass noun (plural mass nouns)

1. A noun that normally cannot be counted.

   Synonyms: material noun, non-count noun, uncountable noun

   Antonyms: countable noun, count noun

Usage notes

• In English, mass nouns, such as information and money, may have no plural form (for example, *informations is invalid in most varieties of English), and they are not used with the indefinite article or numbers in almost all of their senses.
• Many mass nouns, such as whisky, can also be count nouns when they refer to a varietal (“Scotch and Canadian whiskies”) or to denote a serving (“please bring us two whiskies”).
• Conversely many countable nouns can also be used as mass nouns.

Translations

noun describing something that cannot be counted

• Cebuano: paningob
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不可數名詞／不可数名词 (zh) (bùkěshǔ míngcí)

• Dutch: niet-telbaar zelfstandig naamwoord n, niet-telbaar substantief n
• Finnish: ainesana (fi)
• French: nom massif (fr) m, nom non comptable (fr) m, nom indénombrable (fr) m
• German: unzählbares Substantiv n
• Hungarian: nem megszámlálható főnév, nem számszerű főnév, megszámlálhatatlan főnév
• Irish: ainmfhocal maise m
• Japanese: 不可算名詞 (ja) (ふかさんめいし, fukasan meishi)
• Korean: 불가산명사 (ko) (bulgasanmyeongsa)
• Romanian: substantiv nenumărabil n
• Russian: неисчисля́емое существи́тельное n (neisčisljájemoje suščestvítelʹnoje)
• Spanish: nombre incontable (es) m (de (es) sustancia (es))
• Welsh: enw cynnull m

See also

• Appendix:English collective nouns
• Appendix:Glossary of collective nouns by collective term
• collective noun
• noun of assemblage
• noun of multitude
• singulare tantum

 

References

• “mass noun”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.