mass noun

American  

[mas noun] / ˈmæs ˈnaʊn /

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 British  

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

---

Etymology

Origin of mass noun

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

This is a mass noun, as in "How much code does it take to do a bubble sort?"

From The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Steele, Guy L.