Search the lexicon

Found:

mass noun

SEMANTICS: a noun which refers to something without clear boundaries or individual members, like milk and gold. Also called mass term. In English, mass nouns cannot be pluralized (cf. *milks) and cannot be used with the indefinite article (cf. *a milk) or with numerals (cf. *one milk). Mass nouns like cattle and furniture are sometimes called collective nouns because they refer to a collection of individuals, but not to any one individual. The opposite of a mass noun is called a count noun.