mass noun

[ mas-noun ]

nounGrammar.
  1. a noun, as sunshine,electricity, or happiness, that typically refers to an indefinitely divisible substance or an abstract notion, and that in English cannot be used, in such a sense, with the indefinite article or in the plural.

Origin of mass noun

1
First recorded in 1930–35
  • Also called non·count noun [non-kount-noun], /nɒnˈkaʊnt ˈnaʊn/, un·count·a·ble noun [uhn-koun-tuh-buhl noun], /ʌnˈkaʊn tə bəl ˈnaʊn/, un·count noun [uhn-kount-noun] /ʌnˈkaʊnt ˈnaʊn/ .

Words Nearby mass noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

British Dictionary definitions for mass noun

mass noun

noun
  1. a noun that refers to an extended substance rather than to each of a set of isolable objects, as, for example, water as opposed to lake. In English when used indefinitely they are characteristically preceded by some rather than a or an; they do not have normal plural forms: Compare count noun

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