pronoun

[ proh-noun ]

nounGrammar.

any member of a small class of words found in many languages that are used as replacements or substitutes for nouns and noun phrases, and that have very general reference, as I, you, he, this, it, who, what. Pronouns are sometimes formally distinguished from nouns, as in English by the existence of special objective forms, as him for he or me for I, and by nonoccurrence with an article or adjective.

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Origin of pronoun

First recorded in 1520–30; from Middle French pronom, from Latin prōnōmen (stem prōnōmin- ). See pro-¹, noun

Grammar notes for pronoun

Although not generally accepted as good usage, between you and I is heard occasionally in the speech of educated persons. By the traditional rules of grammar, when a pronoun is the object of a preposition, that pronoun should be in the objective case: between you and me; between her and them. The use of the nominative form ( I, he, she, they, etc.) arises partly as overcorrection, the reasoning being that if it is correct at the end of a sentence like It is I, it must also be correct at the end of the phrase between you and …. The choice of pronoun also owes something to the tendency for the final pronoun in a compound object to be in the nominative case after a verb: It was kind of you to invite my wife and I. This too is not generally regarded as good usage.

Words Nearby pronoun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use pronoun in a sentence

They raged that they may be reacting to a riot today, but tomorrow they’ll block you for using the wrong pronouns.
The Right’s Message to Silicon Valley: 'Free Speech for Me, But Not for Thee' | David French | January 16, 2021 | Time
She and her husband had carefully named their offspring according to family tradition, and now one of them wanted a new name and new pronouns that sounded wrong to Hassouri’s ears.
A mother can’t know everything | Terri Schlichenmeyer | October 9, 2020 | Washington Blade
It can disambiguate pronouns, translate, infer, analogize, and even perform some forms of common-sense reasoning and arithmetic.
Welcome to the Next Level of Bullshit - Issue 89: The Dark Side | Raphaël Millière | September 9, 2020 | Nautilus
This is the task of identifying all the proper names in a document and figuring out which pronouns in the text refer to which people or which organizations.
Can A.I. understand poetry? | Jeremy Kahn | August 18, 2020 | Fortune
Since the Ghostbusters are a group, they’d be described using the pronoun them.
Can You Correct These Grammatically Incorrect Song Lyrics? | Brigid Walsh | August 5, 2020 | Everything After Z

Oh, the heaven and hell wrought by the casual use of a pronoun.
Owning Up to Possession’s Downside | Samantha Harvey | December 14, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
He placed particular emphasis on the pronoun when he spoke the title aloud.
Can Bill Bratton Solve De Blasio’s NYPD Dilemma? | Michael Daly | December 5, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
There's UP and US, and UT—an old name for the first (and last) tone, do, and WE (the funnest pronoun) and WO, which is woe.
National Scrabble Day: A Poem So You’ll Know All 101 Two-Letter Words | David Bukszpan | April 13, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
The pronoun is deliberate: the Sims was one of the first games to be played by women in significant numbers.
SimCity Is Smarter Than You (Even If You’re an Urban Planner) | Josh Dzieza | February 26, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
He asks, “What magic is there in the pronoun ‘my,’ that should justify us in overturning the decisions of impartial truth?”
Why Favoritism Is Virtuous: The Case Against Fairness | Stephen T. Asma | December 7, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
The subject pronoun, when unemphatic, is not expressed, but understood from the termination of the verb.
Frdric Mistral | Charles Alfred Downer
The relative object pronoun is often repeated as a personal pronoun, so that the verb has its object expressed twice.
Frdric Mistral | Charles Alfred Downer
The third personal pronoun—he, she, it—in all its cases is especially uncertain in its references.
English: Composition and Literature | W. F. (William Franklin) Webster
That is my excuse for the free use of the personal pronoun, not to make prominent the person, but to emphasize the reality.
Silver Chimes in Syria | W. S. Nelson
The disjunctive forms of the pronoun are also sometimes preserved before verbs and adjectives.
The Indian in his Wigwam | Henry R. Schoolcraft

British Dictionary definitions for pronoun

pronoun

/ (ˈprəʊˌnaʊn) /

noun

one of a class of words that serves to replace a noun phrase that has already been or is about to be mentioned in the sentence or context: Abbreviation: pron

Origin of pronoun

C16: from Latin prōnōmen, from pro- 1 + nōmen noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for pronoun

pronoun

A word that takes the place of a noun. She, herself, it, and this are examples of pronouns. If we substituted pronouns for the nouns in the sentence “Please give the present to Karen,” it would read “Please give it to her.”

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