Questions tagged [abstract-nouns]
Abstract nouns are nouns denoting an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete object, e.g. love, experience, freedom, truth, danger, happiness.
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Is the concrete nouns set larger than abstract one? [closed]
It is so difficult to get count over all nouns. Because of it I ask there, and it refers to my decision on how to research nouns in the near future. So, is the amount of concrete nouns larger than ...
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What is a word for "the feeling of wanting something good for others"?
I'm looking for a word that is the inverse of envy, in which a person wants others to have something good that they don't have.
The definition of envy from Lexico:
A feeling of discontented or ...
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An abstract noun beginning with 'T' meaning originality/uniqueness?
I tried to recall a fabulous word my A-Level English teacher shared with me a few months ago, but can't remember it for the life of me!
It:
Was English (duh)
Began with the letter 'T'
Was a synonym ...
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the semi-final (singular) meaning the team's advancement level in the tournament [closed]
If you meant to convey that they won their quarter-final game and are now going to play at the semi-final level (in a single-elimination tournament), you would often say 'The team advanced to the semi-...
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'Miscellaneous': must be followed by a plural count noun
Garner's fourth reads
Miscellaneous must be followed by a plural count noun; it does
not work with an abstract mass noun. Exceptions are set phrases such
as miscellaneous shower/income.
and
An ...
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Is ‘red’ an abstract noun? [duplicate]
I think that a color is intangible and a paint (thing) is concrete but a color (property) is abstract. Isn’t ‘color’ itself an abstract noun? I cannot imagine a red color but only a red-colored thing.
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Is it wrong to say ‘sourness is the taste’?
Sourness is the taste that detects acidity.
from Wikipedia: Taste#Sourness.
I think it’s like saying redness is the color, not red is the color. Should it be ‘sour taste’?
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What kind of noun is the word 'Luggage'?
I was wondering what kind of noun is the word 'luggage'? I understand that it can neither be a proper noun nor a material noun. I also understand that it is an uncountable noun. But I'm rather ...
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Word for compound event: "At least one of these events will happen"
Over on Math.stackexchange I was discussing probability jargon. Typically the events considered in probability theory are constructed from other, simpler events by a series of unions, intersections, ...
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Abstract and concrete nouns [duplicate]
I am still confused with the classifications of such nouns as area, spot, compound (which refers to a type of area), and area itself. Are they abstract or concrete nouns?
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The (?) French cuisine
Phrases like "French cuisine", "Italian cuisine", "Russian cuisine" seem to be used both with and without definite article. Is there any rule to this? I looked at a few hundred results of Google book ...
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Is "specificity" the correct noun for the state or the possibility of being specified?
The motivation of this question is the following: there are entities in a computer program which can either be explicitly specified, or else they can be "inferred", that is, deduced automatically from ...
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Is the word 'recipe' an abstract noun?
I'm studying English to teach as a foreign language and can't completely grasp the difference between concrete and abstract nouns.
For example, "recipe" is a noun. I understand that a recipe card ...
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A word that entails the meaning of "the trait of being public"
I'm looking for a descriptive word to use when referring to something that is public.
It's better if I give an example:
Consider the adjective red. When something is red you could say it shows some ...
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Usage of the 'abstract' in this sentence?
he loved her only in the abstract--not in person
Source
definition - A concept or idea not associated with any specific instance
My question is how can he love her not in person? How is that ...
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Is the word 'mistake' a concrete or abstract noun? [duplicate]
According to Answers.com:
The word mistake is an abstract noun, a word for an error in action or judgement.
Is this correct?
Then, why does it act like concrete nouns such as 'car' when it comes to ...
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Type of noun from the sentence [closed]
"Seeing the baby the mother rose in her."
Is the word 'mother' in the above sentence a:
(a) Common Noun
(b) Abstract Noun
(c) Proper Noun
(d) Collective Noun
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Are these words concrete or abstract nouns?
Whenever I think of a concrete noun, I think of something that can be perceived by the five senses.
I was wondering, if I could see a particular practice taking place, as in a series of football ...
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"war is" and "there are wars" [closed]
War is horrific. But there are wars happening in places in the world right now.
Did I make any mistakes? Thanks for your help.
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Why do we use "War is horrific" but not "Wars are horrific"?
I saw sentences like
War is horrific… War is hell,…
I'm confused by that, I really appreciate if anyone could explain that for me.
And can I say “Dog is…” and when should I say that, instead of ...
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Is “workload” ever a countable noun? Can it also be uncountable?
Here are two sentences which have almost the same meaning that I have found in two different dictionaries:
Teachers are always complaining about their heavy workloads. (Cambridge Dictionary)
Students ...
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Can I use "gilded" with an abstract concept?
I've perused several examples of how I could use the word "gilded" but I don't see many abstract uses of it. By definition, it means to be covered in gold. Can it also be used with abstract concepts? ...
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The act of carrying out a task first, earlier than in its scheduled order [closed]
Suppose you need to carry out several tasks in a certain order (which may be an order of priorities, or of supposed dependencies, or just arbitrary). Is there a word, preferably a gerund, for the act ...
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A word for: "The strongest should help the weakest"?
Is there a word to describe the concept of "The strongest should help the weakest (members of society)"? Or related concepts like "The strongest will learn faster by helping weaker others", or "The ...
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Are abstract nouns always singular? Or are there such things as 'plural abstract nouns'?
'Abstract noun' is defined by Oxford as follows:
A noun denoting an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete
object, e.g. truth, danger, happiness.
Are abstract nouns always singular?
Or ...
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Should "thirst" be pluralized in the phrase "quench their thirst(s)"?
I am unsure of whether or not I should be using "thirst" or "thirsts" in this sentence:
When Moses led the people out of Egypt and into the desert, didn’t the Lord command Moses to strike a rock so ...
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Hypernym for laws and rules
I need to find the proper abstract noun that can describe rules that are either issued at ministry level in some government and laws that are issued at the nation/presidential level.
After making ...
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Is the question "Does KFC have a queue?" strictly correct?
As a non-English speaker dabbling in Natural Language Processing, I'm trying to generate meaningful Yes/No-question based in hotel and restaurant reviews. This includes 2 types of "exists" questions: "...
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Is there a common noun form of the adjective "repetitive" that doesn't have a negative connotation?
Is there a common noun form of the adjective 'repetitive' that doesn't have a pejorative connotation and that denotes a state rather than action?
Edit: I am not looking for the word 'repetition', as ...
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I need a deeper understanding of the state of being and the quality of being?
the word "approvableness" means - The state or quality of being approvable
When is approvableness used as a state of being approvable? And when is approvableness used as a quality of being ...
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Need help understanding act and process for the definition of communication?
When I looked up the word "communication" at www.dictionary.com, it gave the following meaning below:
the act or process of communicating; fact of being communicated.
My question is based on the ...
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What is the the most appropriate abstract noun to describe the relationship between a reference and its referent?
I'm looking for a word to describe the concept of referencing or the act of referencing.
I'm configuring an issue tracking system that allows linking issues. A link is a pair of issues. These links ...
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"Enormity": Bigness or evil?
A few years ago, I learned that the word "enormity" meant "wickedness" and not (ever!) "bigness"--this according to the official curriculum for a major American standardized test. Upon learning this, ...
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What's the abstract noun for 'deserve'?
Is there an abstract noun for 'deserve'? If not, is there a criterion for words to have an abstract form?
For example, say I am creating a game where I need my character to gain some "Co-efficient ...
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it's not always possible to describe beauty [closed]
Does this sentence only contain Abstract nouns? I'm hoping for a yes.
"it's not always possible to describe beauty"
it is for an online quiz so I am hoping to get an idea
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Conceptual abstract representational grouping name for values/things
It becomes obvious in software development when trying to name a column in DB (entity property in code).
When it comes to naming columns in tables, i look at the values that that column is going to ...
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Definite article with abstract nouns [duplicate]
Is there a way one can determine whether to use the definite article before an abstract noun? For example:
little room for imagination
such concepts as subjectivity and imagination
the ...
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Between abstract and concrete
Does such a word that teeters, or overlaps, between abstract and concrete exist?
For instance, consider violence. It's a term that varies in meaning or definition from person to person until the ...
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Let's talk abstract vs concrete [closed]
So I'm trying to clarify the extent of what abstraction means.
I understand it represents things like emotions or ideas that can't concretely be sensed, just abstractly discussed...but what if ...
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Less Freedom or Fewer Freedoms?
I'm trying to describe that two nations which both guarantee their citizens the right to free speech, asssembly, etc, can have different enforcement policies, resulting a a nation that:
a) has less ...
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If noun phrases can be genericised to ‘someone/something’, how are adjectives genericised?
Often when you look up words in a dictionary, certain sentence patterns and collocations are often given in a kind of ‘genericised’ way, where animate noun phrases are replaced by somebody and ...
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Is there a term for ascribing acts of the human mind to non-human objects, and when is it appropriate to do this?
Nota bene: English isn't my native language, so when I say acts of the human mind, I attempt to generalize things such as making assumptions, drawing conclusions and (to some extent) to reject.
To me ...
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Does the word "depression" refer to an emotion, or a condition?
Particularly when used in a narrative piece, I often notice liberal use of the word "depression", which often seems to be used as a synonym for "sad." Can one be depressed for a few moments in time? ...
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Use "them" or "it", when refering to the abstract concept, fears [closed]
Use "them" or "it", when refering to the abstract concept, fears.
"Let’s put our fears in a little bottle and use it as a
garnish for meals, or sprinkle some on popcorn for scary movies."
OR
"Let’...
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Word for position and direction
I'm looking for a word that encapsulates both an object's position and direction.
Similar words:
a "point" has just a position.
a "vector" has a direction and magnitude
an "orientation" has just a ...
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Abstract noun for solecism
I am looking for the abstract, non-count form of solecism, if it exists. Just as "brevity" describes the quality of being brief, I am looking for an abstract noun to denote the quality of being ...
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Abstract noun as a proper name?
This might be silly to ask, and possibly more theoretical than anything else, but it's something I've always pondered.
My first name is Hope. When I was in Elementary School and first learned about ...
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Why is "data," of all the abstract nouns in English, considered plural?
Most, if not all, of the abstract nouns I've come across are singular.
Examples:
1. My love for him is great.
2. Peace is very difficult to achieve.
3. The temperature of that pot is very high.
So ...
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Should an article be used for the word “war”?
I’ve been reading much about the US poverty war recently. Some people say:
He declared the war on poverty fifty years ago.
But others say:
He declared war on poverty fifty years ago.
Should ...
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