common nounnoun [ C ]
uk/ˌkɒm.ən ˈnaʊn/us/ˌkɑː.mən ˈnaʊn/specializeda noun that is the name of a group of similar things, such as "table" or "book", and not of a single person, place, or thing
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proper noun
Examples
- Can you tell the difference between a common noun and a proper noun?
- In the sentence 'Mary had a little lamb', there is one common noun.
- Names of places are proper nouns, not common nouns.
- A common noun doesn't usually begin with a capital letter unless it is at the beginning of the sentence.
- The phrase "a jug of water" contains two common nouns - one countable and one uncountable.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Linguistics: parts of speech
- abstract noun
- adjective
- adjunct
- adv
- article
- collective noun
- conj
- conjunction
- connective
- definite article
- determiner
- indefinite article
- interjection
- n
- noun phrase
- part of speech
- prep
- preposition
- pron
- proper noun
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Examples from literature
- Boy is applied in common to all young males of the human species, and as such is a common noun or name.
- Common nouns are names applied to a whole kind or species.
- From your reading bring up sentences containing ten common nouns, five proper, five abstract.
- It is easy to see that when we have named these class ideas we have our list of common nouns.
- It will be observed that in many places I have capitalized the common noun Lake.