common noun

common noun (plural common nouns)

2. A noun that denotes any member, or all members, of a class; an ordinary noun such as dog or city; contrasted with a proper noun, which refers to a single named entity, such as Socrates or Tokyo.
   • 2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 15:

     The Butlers had been serving the Fowls for centuries. It had always been that way. Indeed, there were several eminent linguists of the opinion that this was how the common noun had originated.

• In English, many common nouns are countable, meaning that they have singular and plural forms and can be preceded by an indefinite article or numbers, as in a dog, two dogs, etc. Others are uncountable: they do not have separate singular and plural forms and can stand without any determiner; for example, hydrogen is the lightest element. Some common nouns have both countable and uncountable uses.

Most common nouns are uncapitalized, but some are by convention capitalized (e.g. Frenchman), and the distinction between capitalized vs uncapitalized nouns should not be confused with the distinction between proper and common nouns.

• appellative, appellative noun, nomen appellativum, common substantive noun

• proper noun