nouns

Noun

noun (plural nouns)

1. (strictly) A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea: one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English.
   • Records have been broken, races have been dedicated, dreams have been dreamed, starts have been falsed and nouns have been verbed.2011 September 1, Harry Pearson, “London 2012 can legacy by verbing the noun”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 22 Sep 2024
2. (archaic, broadly) Either a word that can be used to refer to a person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality or idea, or a word that modifies or describes a previous word or its referent; a substantive or adjective, sometimes also including other parts of speech such as numeral or pronoun.
   • Q. What is a Noun? A. The Name of a Thing. Q. How many Sorts of Nouns are there? [...] A. A Noun Substantive, and a Noun Adjective.1753, Thomas Martin, An Explanation of the Accidence and Grammar To the End of the Syntax in which The Grounds of each Rule in the Syntax are laid down in the plainest Manner. Compiled By way of...
3. An object within a user interface to which a certain action or transformation (i.e., verb) is applied.
   • Nouns are the data; verbs are the data transformations, and therefore verbs represent much of the complexity of systems.1992, Brad A. Myers, David C. Smith, Bruce Horn, chapter 19, in Languages for Developing User Interfaces

See all 5 meanings of noun