mass noun

[ mas noun ]

noun

, Grammar.

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.

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of mass noun¹

First recorded in 1930–35