What Are Concrete and Abstract Nouns?

From pigeons to pacifism, all nouns fall into one of two categories: concrete or abstract.

As an editor or proofreader, understanding what concrete and abstract nouns are and how they work will help you make sure your clients are communicating clearly. That’s why, in this post, we explain:

• What a concrete noun is (with examples)
• What an abstract noun is (with examples)
• How to use concrete and abstract nouns

What Is a Concrete Noun?

Concrete nouns describe things that exist in a tangible, physical way.

In other words, if you can perceive something through any of the senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch – then you can call it a concrete noun.

Dog, for example, is a concrete noun because a dog is something you can see, hear, and touch (and occasionally smell).

Wind is also a concrete noun, even though it isn’t something you can see, because you can still feel and hear it.

Confusingly, you can also refer to fictional things, such as imaginary places, objects, and characters, as concrete nouns. This is because, even though they don’t physically exist in the real world, they play the role of something physical in the fictional world.

Most concrete nouns refer to:

• Living things (e.g., woman, dragonfly, King Henry VIII)
• Inanimate objects (e.g., stairs, rocks, water)
• Places (e.g., village, South Africa, forest)

Concrete nouns can also be any type of noun that isn’t abstract, including common, proper, singular, plural, countable, or uncountable nouns.

Concrete Noun Examples

• friend
• cat
• person
• father
• rabbit
• clouds
• chocolate
• dust
• tea
• light
• music
• stairs
• forest
• mushrooms
• siren
• rock
• water
• fire
• perfume
• village
• South Africa
• city
• farm
• library

What Is an Abstract Noun?

Abstract nouns refer to anything you can’t see, hear, smell, taste, or touch.

Abstract nouns most often refer to:

• Emotions (e.g., joy, guilt, surprise)
• Ideas or concepts (e.g., agriculture, Cubism, childhood)
• Characteristics (e.g., humor, courage, brevity)
• Measurements of time (e.g., day, June, weekend)

Though we say we “feel” emotions, we don’t do so literally. And while the consequences of an emotion or an idea may be physical, the emotion or idea itself isn’t.

For example, you might wipe away someone’s tears if they’re experiencing sadness, but sadness itself isn’t something you can physically touch.

Abstract nouns can be difficult to get your head around, but once you learn to check whether you can physically experience something, you can tell more easily whether that thing is an abstract or a concrete noun.

Abstract Noun Examples

• confusion
• freedom
• friendship
• agriculture
• extinction
• birth
• Cubism
• childhood
• Buddhism
• humor
• courage
• brevity
• summer
• day
• June
• weekend

How to Use Concrete and Abstract Nouns

While concrete nouns are different from abstract nouns, both types follow the same standard grammar rules all nouns do, such as the subject–verb agreement requirement.

It’s still important to know the difference between a concrete noun and an abstract one, however, because you can use these types of nouns for different purposes.

Concrete nouns help us to communicate information about the physical world clearly, whether that world is real or fictional.

Abstract nouns, on the other hand, can introduce more complex ideas and allow us to explore things beyond the physical realm.

Imagery and Abstract Nouns

Sometimes, a writer may use concrete nouns to better explain abstract nouns. We see this technique most often in devices such as similes and metaphors:

Happiness feels like the sunrise after a long night.

My fear was a bird in a cage, desperate to get out.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

By comparing abstract nouns to concrete ones, a writer can translate intangible concepts into physical images and convey ideas more clearly.

Telling Nouns Apart

The easiest way to tell concrete nouns apart from abstract nouns is to check whether you can use your senses to perceive the object the noun is describing.

However, there are other differences between the two.

Concrete nouns are far more common and make up much more of the English language than abstract nouns, meaning concrete nouns can be as different from one another in meaning and construction as grandfather and apartment block.

Abstract nouns, meanwhile, have a little more in common with one another. They tend to derive from adjectives. The abstract noun kindness, for example, comes from the adjective kind.

This relationship also means that many abstract nouns end in the same suffixes:

• -ness (e.g., kindness)
• -ity (e.g., sanctity)
• -hood (e.g., parenthood)
• -ship (e.g., relationship)
• -ence (e.g., prominence)
• -ment (e.g., agreement)

Ultimately, whether a noun should be concrete or abstract has more to do with the meaning, tone, and purpose of a piece of writing than with whether the noun’s use is “correct.” But as a proofreader or editor, you should still make sure your client has chosen their words appropriately.

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