common noun

1.1

A word for a general person, place, thing, or idea

noun
/ˈkɑːmən naʊn/

: sustantivo común

Words like 'teacher' and 'river' are examples of common nouns rather than specific names.

Examples

Words like 'city' and 'student' are all common nouns that do not specify unique entities.
In the sentence 'The cat sat on the mat,' both 'cat' and 'mat' are common nouns.
The word common noun refers to any general item, such as 'city', 'dog', or 'book'.
A common noun refers to general items.
Can you give me an example of a common noun?
"Dog" is an example of a common noun.
In English, a common noun refers to general items like 'car' and 'tree'.

Antonyms

proper noun

Specialized

1 2.1

A name for a specific person, place, or organization

How Official

appellation

Specialized

1 9.9

place name

4 2.3

common noun

1.1

to nickname

Informal

49 2.0

Surface Forms

common noun singular

common nouns plural

Morphology

common + noun

The meaning 'a general or non-specific noun' is directly derivable from composing 'common' (belonging to or shared) with 'noun' (a word for a person, place, thing, or idea); the adjective+noun combination straightforwardly yields a noun that is general rather than a specific name. This compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows basic English word-formation, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Common noun comes from the idea of a name used for many things, not one special thing: common means 'general' or 'shared' and noun is a 'naming word'. So, common noun means a general name like 'city' or 'dog', not a specific name like 'Paris' or 'Fido'.