Uncountable Nouns! An uncountable noun is a word which names a place, item or person but cannot be counted, for example air, water or people. Uncountable nouns are commonly used within the English language and of course, there are rules involved with their use. It is important that you understand how to correctly use an uncountable noun so that your sentences are properly formed and sound fluid.
In this section, we are going to be looking further into the subject of uncountable nouns and how they work.
What is an Uncountable Noun?
Countable nouns are common nouns that can take a plural, can combine with numerals or counting quantifiers, and can take an indefinite article such as a or an. Examples of count nouns are book, orange, cat, animal, man…
- The outside of an orange is bitter, but the inside is sweet.
- A cat was basking on the window sill.
Uncountable Nouns are substances, concepts, materials, information… that we cannot divide into separate elements. They can’t be counted.
For example, we cannot count “water“. We can count “a glass of water” or “a bottle of water” or “1 litre of water“, but we cannot count “water” itself.
- I immerse my clothes in the water.
- Could I have a glass of water, please?
Uncountable Nouns List A – Z
Below you can find a list of the most common non-count nouns in English. Some nouns are both countable and uncountable. They have been put in bold.
Uncountable Nouns List: A – D
A
- Advice
- Aggression
- Assistance
- Attention
- Accommodation
- Advertising
- Air
- Athletics
- Access
- Adulthood
- Alcohol
- Applause
- Agriculture
- Atmosphere
- Anger
- Art
- Absence
- Aid
- Arithmetic
- Age
B
- Beauty
- Beef
- Bravery
- Business
- Blood
- Botany
- Bacon
- Baggage
- Ballet
- Butter
- Biology
- Beer
- Bread
- Behaviour
C
- Cake
- Cash
- Chaos
- Clothing
- Confidence
- Compassion
- Calm
- Corruption
- Courage
- Comprehension
- Cheese
- Currency
- Carbon
- Cardboard
- Chalk
- Chess
- Coal
- Commerce
- Confusion
- Cookery
- Countryside
- Crockery
- Cutlery
- Chocolate
- Content
- Cotton
- Childhood
- Coffee
D
- Danger
- Data
- Dancing
- Democracy
- Damage
- Darkness
- Determination
- Delight
- Depression
- Driving
- Dignity
- Dessert
- Design
- Dust
- Distribution
- Dirt
- Duty
Uncountable Nouns List: E – H
E
- Education
- Economics
- Equipment
- Earth
- Expense
- Energy
- Electricity
- Enthusiasm
- Environment
- Enjoyment
- Energy
- Envy
- Evil
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Evolution
- Existence
- Ethics
- Evidence
- Employment
- Experience
F
- Failure
- Fire
- Fiction
- Fashion
- Forgiveness
- Faith
- Flour
- Flu
- Fear
- Fun
- Fame
- Freedom
- Food
- Finance
- Fruit
- Fuel
- Friendship
- Furniture
- Flesh
G
- Gasoline
- Genetics
- Garbage
- Growth
- Grief
- Grammar
- Garlic
- Gossip
- Gold
- Gymnastics
- Glass
- Grass
- Golf
- Gratitude
- Ground
- Guilt
H
- Harm
- Hair
- Hardware
- Hydrogen
- Help
- Happiness
- Health
- Hate
- Hope
- Hospitality
- Homework
- Heat
- Hatred
- Hunger
- Honey
- Humour
- Honesty
- Height
- Housework
- History
Uncountable Nouns List: I – O
I
- Ice
- Imagination
- Information
- Independence
- Infrastructure
- Ice cream
- Importance
- Intelligence
- Industry
- Irony
- Injustice
- Innocence
- Iron
- Insurance
- Inflation
J
- Judo
- Jealousy
- Jam
- Jewelery
- Joy
- Juice
- Justice
K
- Kindness
- Knowledge
- Karate
L
- Laughter
- Labour
- Lava
- Livestock
- Luggage
- Lightning
- Land
- Leather
- Linguistics
- Light
- Loneliness
- Lack
- Litter
- Luck
- Love
- Leisure
- Logic
- Literature
M
- Machinery
- Mankind
- Marriage
- Money
- Magic
- Marble
- Mercy
- Music
- Meat
- Management
- Mathematics
- Moonlight
- Methane
- Milk
- Metal
- Mayonnaise
- Mud
- Mist
- Motivation
- Motherhood
- Measles
N
- Nature
- Nitrogen
- Nutrition
- Noise
- News
- Nonsense
- Nurture
O
- Obedience
- Obesity
- Oxygen
- Oil
Uncountable Nouns List: P – Z
P
- Paper
- Passion
- Poetry
- Parking
- Pressure
- Perfume
- Physics
- Psychology
- Peel
- Pepper
- Patience
- Permission
- Peace
- Philosophy
- Plastic
- Progress
- Production
- Pollution
- Pleasure
- Pork
- Petrol
- Pronunciation
- Pride
- Policy
- Purity
- Poverty
- Punctuation
- Power
- Produce
- Protection
- Publicity
- Pasta
- Pay
- Pain
- Painting
Q
- Quartz
- Quality
- Quantity
R
- Reliability
- Rum
- Recreation
- Reality
- Rubbish
- Revenge
- Racism
- Rice
- Relief
- Respect
- Rain
- Relaxation
- Research
- Religion
S
- Salt
- Safety
- Salad
- Scaffolding
- Soil
- Satisfaction
- Sand
- Satire
- Security
- Sorrow
- Seafood
- Speed
- Scenery
- Sewing
- Strength
- Space
- Software
- Seaside
- Stream
- Stupidity
- Shopping
- Stress
- Shame
- Spite
- Steam
- Silence
- Sunshine
- Sleep
- Status
- Success
- Soup
- Snow
- Smoking
- Silver
- Symmetry
- Spaghetti
- Spelling
- Soap
- Sport
- Stuff
- Sugar
- Smoke
T
- Tea
- Tolerance
- Thirst
- Technology
- Trousers
- Tennis
- Trade
- Timber
- Turbulence
- Toothpaste
- Time
- Traffic
- Travel
- Toast
- Thunder
- Transportation
- Trust
- Trouble
- Temperature
U
- Understanding
- Usage
- Underwear
- Unemployment
- Unity
V
- Violence
- Veal
- Validity
- Vitality
- Vinegar
- Vision
- Vegetation
- Vegetarianism
- Vengeance
W
- Warmth
- Weight
- Whiskey
- Weather
- Wildlife
- Water
- Welfare
- Wine
- Wisdom
- Wood
- Wealth
- Wheat
- Wool
- Width
- Work
Y
- Yoga
- Youth
- Yeast
Z
- Zoology
- Zinc