mass noun

Noun

Meaning

a noun that does not form plurals

Source: WordNet

Synonyms

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Hypernyms

Examples

Partitive article A partitive article is a type of indefinite article used with a mass noun such as water, to indicate a non-specific quantity of it. Source: Internet

For example, the same set of chairs can be referred to as "seven chairs" and as "furniture"; although both chair and furniture are referring to the same thing, the former is a count noun and the latter a mass noun. Source: Internet

Examples Below are examples of all the properties of count nouns holding for the count noun chair, but not for the mass noun furniture. Source: Internet

For example, one may say that "there's apple in this sauce," and then apple has cumulative reference, and, hence, is used as a mass noun. Source: Internet

If, instead, we had chosen to characterize count nouns as quantized nouns, and mass nouns as non-quantized ones, then we would (incorrectly) be led to expect committee to be a mass noun. Source: Internet

In casual speech, oxygen might be used as shorthand for "an oxygen atom", but in this case, it is not a mass noun, so one can refer to "multiple oxygens in the same molecule". Source: Internet

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