proper noun

See also: proper-noun

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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Noun

proper noun (plural proper nouns)

Examples
Mike, London, United Nations, Europe

1. (grammar) A noun denoting a particular person, place, organization, ship, animal, event, or other individual entity

Usage notes

Main appendix: English proper nouns

In English, a proper noun is normally not preceded by an article or limiting modifier and is normally written with an initial capital letter. However, some proper nouns are preceded by articles (such as the Netherlands) and some are uncapitalized (kd lang), and many common (non-proper) nouns are also capitalized, like European. Some references erroneously conflate whether a noun is common or proper with whether it is capitalized or not, although these are not the same.

Synonyms

• nomen proprium, noun substantive proper, proper substantive, proper name, substantive proper
• selfname

Antonyms

• common noun (common name), appellative noun (nomen appellativum)

Hypernyms

• noun (substantive, substantive noun)

Translations

the name of a particular person, place, organization or other individual entity

• Albanian: ^{(please verify)} emër i përveçëm
• Amharic: የተፀውኦ ስም (yätäṣ́äwʾo səm)
• Arabic: عَلَم‎ (ar) (ʿalam)
• Armenian: հատուկ անուն (hy) (hatuk anun)
• Asturian: nome propiu (ast) m
• Bashkir: яңғыҙлыҡ исем (yañğïðlïq isem)
• Belarusian: ула́снае і́мя n (ulásnaje ímja), і́мя ўла́снае n (ímja ŭlásnaje)
• Bulgarian: со́бствено и́ме n (sóbstveno íme)
• Catalan: nom propi (ca)
• Cebuano: pangpiho
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 專有名詞 (zh), 专有名词 (zh) (zhuānyǒu míngcí), 固有名詞 (zh), 固有名词 (zh) (gùyǒu míngcí)

• Czech: vlastní jméno (cs) n
• Danish: proprium (da), egennavn (da)
• Dutch: eigennaam (nl) m
• Esperanto: propra nomo
• Estonian: pärisnimi
• Faroese: sernavn n
• Finnish: erisnimi (fi), propri (fi)
• French: nom propre (fr)
• Galician: nome propio (gl) m
• Georgian: საკუთარი სახელი (saḳutari saxeli), საკუთარი არსებითი სახელი (saḳutari arsebiti saxeli)
• German: Eigenname (de) m
• Greek: κύριο όνομα (el) n (kýrio ónoma)

  Ancient Greek: ὄνομα κύριον n (ónoma kúrion)

• Hebrew: שֵׁם פְּרָטִי‎ (he) m (shem pratí)
• Hindi: नामवाचक संज्ञा m (nāmvācak sañgyā)
• Hungarian: tulajdonnév (hu)
• Icelandic: eiginnafn n, sérnafn (is) n
• Interlingua: nomine proprie (ia)
• Irish: ainmfhocal dílis m
• Italian: nome proprio (it)
• Japanese: 固有名詞 (ja) (こゆうめいし, koyūmeishi)

• Kalmyk: эврә нерн (evrä nern)
• Khmer: អសាធារណនាម (ak sathea raknak neam), នាមអសាធារណ៍ (neam ak sathea)
• Korean: 고유명사(固有名詞) (ko) (goyumyeongsa)
• Latin: nōmen prōprium n
• Latvian: īpašvārds (lv) m
• Lithuanian: tikrinis daiktavardis (lt) m
• Luxembourgish: Eegennumm m
• Macedonian: ли́чна и́менка f (líčna ímenka)
• Malayalam: സംജ്ഞാനാമം (ml) (sañjñānāmaṃ)
• Norman: nom propre m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: egennavn (no) n

  Nynorsk: eigennamn n

• Occitan: nom pròpri m
• Old English: āgen nama m
• Persian: اسم خاص‎ (fa) (esm-e xâss)
• Polish: nazwa własna (pl) f
• Portuguese: substantivo próprio (pt) m, nome próprio m
• Romanian: nume propriu (ro) n, substantiv propriu (ro) n
• Russian: и́мя со́бственное (ru) n (ímja sóbstvennoje), о́ним (ru) m (ónim)
• Scots: proper noon
• Scottish Gaelic: ainmear sònrachaidh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: властита и̏меница f, лична и̏меница f, особна и̏меница f

  Roman: vlastita ȉmenica f, lična ȉmenica f, osobna ȉmenica f

• Slovak: vlastné meno n
• Slovene: lastno ime (sl) n
• Spanish: nombre propio (es)
• Swedish: egennamn (sv)
• Telugu: సంజ్ఞానామము (sañjñānāmamu), సంజ్ఞావిశేష్యము (sañjñāviśēṣyamu)
• Thai: วิสามานยนาม (th) (wí-sǎa-maan-yá-naam)
• Turkish: özel ad (tr), özel isim (tr)
• Udmurt: асним (asnim)
• Ukrainian: вла́сна на́зва f (vlásna názva), вла́сне і́м'я n (vlásne ímʺja)
• Vietnamese: danh từ riêng
• Welsh: enw priod m

See also

• Appendix:English proper nouns
• Appendix:Glossary

References

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