NOUN

Definition of noun

: any member of a class of words that typically can be combined with determiners (see DETERMINER sense b) to serve as the subject of a verb, can be interpreted as singular or plural, can be replaced with a pronoun, and refer to an entity, quality, state, action, or concept

명사 NOUN 이란  사람, 물건, 동물, 장소, 집단, 물질, 추상적 관념인 행위, 성질, 수, 량 등을 총체적으로 명명한 이름이다. 개별적 개체에 고유한 고유명사와는 다르다.

이름하는 noun 에는 가장 많은 것이 보통명사, 그리고 고유명사, 집합명사, 물질명사. 추상명사가 있다. 이들 명사는 문장의 주어가 되기도 하고, 동사나 전치사의 목적어가 되기도 한다.

영어의 8가지의 품사중 가장 많이 차지하는 품사가 명사이다. 명사를 대신하여 말하는 품사가 대명사이다. 그 외로 전치사, 형용사, 부사, 동사, 접속사, 감탄사 가 있다.

Nouns make up the largest class of words in most languages, including English. A noun is a word that refers to a thing (book), a person (Betty Crocker), an animal (cat), a place (Omaha), a quality (softness), an idea (justice), or an action (yodeling). It's usually a single word, but not always: cake, shoes, school bus, and time and a half are all nouns.

There are a number of different categories of nouns.

There are common nouns and proper nouns. A common noun refers to a person, place, or thing but is not the name of a particular person, place, or thing. Examples are animal, sunlight, and happiness. A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place, or thing; it usually begins with a capital letter: Abraham Lincoln, Argentina, and World War I are all proper nouns.

A collective noun is a noun that names a group of people or things, such as flock or squad. It's sometimes unclear whether the verb for a collective noun should be singular or plural. In the United States, such nouns as company, team, herd, public, and class, as well as the names of companies, teams, etc., are treated as singular, but in the United Kingdom they are often treated as plural: (US) "The team has been doing well this season." vs. (British) "The team have been doing well this season."

Gerunds are nouns that are identical to the present participle (-ing form) of a verb, as in "I enjoy swimming more than running."

An attributive noun is a noun that modifies another noun that immediately follows it, such as business in business meeting. These nouns look like adjectives but they're not.

For learners of English, the most important feature of a noun is whether it can be counted. A count noun is a noun that can be used after a or an or after a number (or another word that means "more than one"). Count nouns have both singular and plural forms and can be used with both singular and plural verb forms, as with the word letter in "A letter for you is on the table. Letters for you arrive regularly." Sometimes the plural form of a count noun is the same as its singular form, as in "I saw a deer in my yard yesterday. There are a lot of deer in the woods near my house."

A mass noun (or noncount noun) refers to something that cannot be counted. Mass nouns are normally not used after the words a or an or after a number. They have only one form and are used with singular verb forms, as in "Portuguese is one of the languages they speak," and "The information was unclear."

Some nouns are not count or mass nouns. Nouns which only ever refer to one thing are called singular nouns: "Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun," "We heard a terrible din in the alley." And a plural noun refers to more than one person or thing, or sometimes to something that has two main parts. Plural nouns have only one form and are used with plural verb forms: "Townspeople are invited to a forum on the project," "These scissors are dull."

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/noun

noun Grammar.

any member of a class of words that can function as the main or only elements of subjects of verbs (A dog just barked),or of objects of verbs or prepositions (to send money from home ), and that in English can take plural forms andpossessive endings (Three of his buddies want to borrow John's laptop). Nouns are often described as referring to persons, places, things, states, or qualities, and the word noun is itself often used as an attributive modifier, as in nouncompound ; noun group .See also noun adjunct, noun clause, noun phrase.

Origin of noun

1350–1400; Middle English nowne < Anglo-French noun < Latin nōmen name

Related formsnoun·al , adjectivenoun·al·ly , adverb

Grammar note

Most of us learned the classic definition of noun back in elementary school, where we were told simply that “a noun is thename of a person, place, or thing.” That's not a bad beginning; it even clues us in to the origin of the word, since noun is derived ultimately from the Latin word nōmen, which means ‘name’. 
As we see from its dictionary definition, a noun can name not only a physical thing but also abstract things such as a state ( happiness ) or a quality ( beauty ). The word is defined further in terms of the way it functions in the language—as a subject or object in a sentence or as the object of a preposition. In any of those positions, it can be modified by an adjective or adjectivephrase: a talented but quirky artist. 
Nouns are typically said to fall into two categories: proper noun and common noun. A proper noun designates a particularperson, place, or thing and is normally capitalized: Shakespeare, Mexico, the Pentagon. A common noun refers to a genericperson, place, or thing: teacher, classroom, smartphone. The plural form of a common noun names a set or group. (Propernouns are pluralized only in special circumstances: There are many Springfields in the United States. Oh, no, the Smiths arecoming to dinner again. ) 
To form the plural, most common nouns simply add an -s ( teachers, classrooms, smartphones ). Some nouns ending in –o(but not all) add -es. Nouns ending in the sounds [ch] /tʃ/ , [j] /dʒ/ , [sh] /ʃ/ , [zh] /ʒ/ , [s] /s/ , or [z] /z/ also have plurals ending in -es ( bus/buses, ash, ashes, judge/judges ). Several nouns form the plural in a different way. These include child/children,knife/knives, and a number of others. Some nouns have a plural form identical to that of the singular: sheep/sheep. SevenEnglish nouns form their plural by changing the vowel in the middle of the word: woman/women, man/men, goose/geese,tooth/teeth, foot/feet, louse/lice. (Can you think of the seventh one?*) And then, of course, there are nouns borrowed fromother languages that keep their non-English plurals ( bacterium/bacteria, chapeau/chapeaux, kibbutz/kibbutzim ). 
But not all nouns can be pluralized. Thus we have another way to categorize nouns. Those that can be thought of in the pluralare called count nouns; the things they name can be counted and enumerated. Other nouns, called mass nouns or noncount nouns, name things that are usually not counted, even when the amount grows larger. This class includes nounsthat refer to a substance ( water, sand, oxygen, electricity ), a quality ( kindness, honesty ), or an abstract concept ( happiness,health ). There are exceptions: some substances can be spoken of in the plural if you are referring to various kinds ( Thewines of France are known throughout the world ) or to units or containers of the substance ( We’ll have three coffees and twoteas ). 
Certain other nouns that name something relatively concrete, like furniture, flatware, hardware, and software, are also treatedas mass nouns. This means that in English we do not say “This computer comes with the latest softwares.” Nor do we say “I’mbuying a furniture” (although we can buy a couch or a table ), since mass nouns normally cannot be immediately preceded by “a,” “an,” or a numeral. Instead, we use the singular form even when referring to large quantities, saying things like “a lot of software” or “too much furniture.” This distinction between count nouns and mass nouns, complex though it may seem, is pretty much absorbed automatically if you grow up speaking English. But it can be one of the most difficult things to assimilatefor people learning English as a foreign language. The answer? Read, read, read. And listen. 
* mouse/mice