count noun

(redirected from Countable noun)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus.
Related to Countable noun: abstract noun, Uncountable noun

countable noun

Countable nouns (also known as count nouns) are nouns that can be considered as individual, separable items, which means that we are able to count them with numbers—we can have one, two, five, 15, 100, and so on. We can also use them with the indefinite articles a and an (which signify a single person or thing) or with the plural form of the noun.
Countable nouns contrast with uncountable nouns (also known as non-count or mass nouns), which cannot be separated and counted as individual units or elements. Uncountable nouns cannot take an indefinite article, nor can they be made plural.
Continue reading...

count noun

Linguistics Logic a noun that can be qualified by the indefinite article, and may be used in the plural, as telephone and thing but not airs and graces or bravery
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
Mentioned in ?
References in periodicals archive ?
Countable nouns are associated with bounded region, which comprises interconnected entities with "some limit" (ibid., see also Jackendoff 1991; Rijkhoff 2002: 50-59).
In both interpretations, Langacker's and Talmy's respectively, countable nouns denote entities which are understood as coherent conceptual GESTALTS (see Talmy 2000: 181).
A cognitive comparison of nouns--English v Polish
Entertainment occurs 25 times as a countable noun in the corpus, mostly with the plural marker, and only 3 times as an uncountable noun.
Fruit is used 9 times as a regular countable noun with singular/plural distinction and 6 times collectively.
The category of countable nouns comprises all the nouns which show plural marking (both regular, such as book-books, and irregular child-children) as well as a group of unmarked plurals (sheep, deer) which nevertheless behave syntactically like the former.
Uncountable and countable nouns also differ in the choice of indicators of quantity, much and many.
The difference *between collective nouns and other countable nouns is that after a singular group noun (especially in British English) there is often a choice between a singular and plural verb, for example:
The majority of countable nouns can be easily distinguished in the texts: they are common nouns, which have both singular and plural forms.
Countable, uncountable and collective nouns in the early eighteenth century English -- an overview. (Linguistics)
Investigating the relevant data of several languages, we can assert that in the case of countable nouns the marking of number in most languages follows the basic "singular ~ plural" opposition, e.g.
The function of the singular form of nouns in the Hungarian language
Fewer is for countable nouns and less for uncountable nouns.
So Many Votes

Encyclopedia browser ?
Full browser ?