noun phrase

noun

, Grammar.

1. a construction that functions syntactically as a noun, consisting of a noun and any modifiers, as all the men in the room who are reading books, or of a noun substitute, as a pronoun.

noun phrase

noun

1. grammar a constituent of a sentence that consists of a noun and any modifiers it may have a noun clause, or a word, such as a pronoun, that takes the place of a noun NP

Word History and Origins

Origin of noun phrase¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

PoetiX asked for systems able to produce “humanlike” sonnets in response to a noun phrase prompt.

From Slate

But to encourage the reader to parse it as a noun phrase, he should have set up a context in which the reader indeed expects to see a noun phrase.

From Literature

When she reads the word the, for example, she figures she must be hearing a noun phrase.

From Literature

Verb Phrase to Verb Noun Phrase Prep Phrase Article Noun Adj Phrase a way Adj Prep Phrase commensurate Prer | Noun Phrase Article Noun Prep Phrase the privilege Prep Verb Phrase of Verb Coordination Coordination Noun Phrase Article Adj Noun Phrase the whole Coordination Noun reeling glorious sweep infinite The only exceptions, where the reader has to analyze a downstairs phrase before the upstairs phrase is complete, are the two literary flourishes marked by the triangles.

From Literature

My favorite explanation of the difference in difficulty between flat, right-branching, and left-branching trees comes from Dr. Seuss’s Fox in Socks, who takes a flat clause with three branches, each containing a short right-branching clause, and recasts it as a single left-branching noun phrase: “When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle’s on a poodle and the poodle’s eating noodles, they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle.”

From Literature