Noun

A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics

// n. (N) One of the principal lexical categories. This category appears to be universally present in languages; while prototypical nouns have meanings denoting individual physical entities like dog and tree, words that behave grammatically as nouns can in fact exhibit a very wide range of meanings, such as edge, colour, beauty, arrival, ancestry or absence. Among the most typical properties of nouns in languages generally are inflection for number, classification for gender and, above all, the ability to occur with determiners inside noun phrases.

NOTE: traditional grammar often included adjectives in the category Noun, distinguishing ‘nouns substantive’ (nouns) from ‘nouns adjective’ (adjectives). This use is obsolete. Adj. nominal.