mass noun

noun, Grammar

a noun, as water, electricity, or happiness, that typically refers to an indefinitely divisible substance or an abstract notion, and that in English cannot be used, in such a sense, with the indefinite article or in the plural.

Also called noncount noun, uncountable noun, uncount noun.

Origin

1930-35

British Dictionary definitions for mass noun

mass noun

noun

a noun that refers to an extended substance rather than to each of a set of isolable objects, as, for example, water as opposed to lake. In English when used indefinitely they are characteristically preceded by some rather than a or an; they do not have normal plural forms Compare count noun