proper noun

[ prop-er noun ]

noun

1. Grammar. a noun that is used to denote a particular person, place, or thing, as Lincoln, Sarah, Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Hall. Compare common noun.

proper noun

noun

1. the name of a person, place, or object, as for example Iceland, Patrick, or Uranus Compare common noun onomastic

Grammar Note

Proper nouns are not normally preceded by an article or other limiting modifier, as any or some. Nor are they usually pluralized. But the language allows for exceptions. Proper nouns may occasionally have a definite article as part of the name, as in the case of some ships, organizations, and hotels, as The Titanic, The Humane Society, and The Plaza. An indefinite article is appropriate when you use a name as an exemplar: She looks like a young Elizabeth Taylor! And there is sometimes a reason for treating a name as if it were a generic: There are four Devons in my class. Proper nouns, usually capitalized in English, are arbitrary, in that a name can be given to someone or something without regard to any descriptive meaning the word or phrase may otherwise have.

Word History and Origins

Origin of proper noun¹

First recorded in 1490–1500

Example Sentences

Other players, equally freed from the bother of proper nouns or even definite articles, go by handily expository titles like “first brother-in-law” or “longest friend.”

From New York Times

Change a few proper nouns and Henson describes my son Mike.

From Los Angeles Times

It can’t decipher proper nouns such as names and places, and sometimes it just gets things wrong altogether.

From Scientific American

Everything began, cosmologists currently think, with a bang — the Big Bang; if it does not deserve to be a proper noun, what does?

From Washington Post

The local names must be Philippine proper nouns that should not exceed nine letters or three syllables, said Sheilla Reyes, a weather specialist at the country’s national meteorological service.

From New York Times