uncountable
/ʌnˈkaʊntəbl̩/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.44 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Incapable of being put into one-to-one correspondence with the natural numbers or any subset thereof.
adj
That cannot be used freely with numbers or the indefinite article, and therefore usually takes no plural form. Example: information.
noun
A noun that is uncountable.
Example Sentences
- "The reasons for our failure were as uncountable as the grains of sand on a beach."
- "Mr. Chambre has since spent uncountable hours and even more uncountable dollars buying upward of 23,000 documents, and he figures to be just hitting speed."
- "Cantor’s “diagonal proof” shows that the set of real numbers is uncountable."
- "Many languages do not distinguish countable nouns from uncountable nouns."
- "One meaning in law of the usually uncountable noun "information" is used in the plural and is countable."
- "But inherent uncountables such as 'stuffs' can be conceptualized in two different ways, depending on whether they are viewed in terms of quantity or in terms of quality."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Latin putus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin putō Latin computō Anglo-Norman counterbor. Middle English counten Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able Middle English countable English countable English uncountable From un- + countable.