Do you know what a compound noun is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on compound nouns, including the definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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December 15, 2021
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Common Questions
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What is a compound noun?
According to Your Dictionary, a compound noun is where two or more words join together to form a single noun. There are also compound verbs, compound adjectives, and other resulting compound forms. These can be formed by adding a noun and a noun, and adjective and a noun, a noun and an adjective, a preposition and a noun, a noun and a preposition, a onu and a prepositional phrase, a verb and a noun, a noun and a verb, two adjectives, an adjective and a verb, a preposition and a verb, or a verb and a preposition. Some of these are closed, meaning that there will not be a space between the two words that form the resulting compound. Sometimes they are open, meaning there will be a space between the words. Sometimes they are in a hyphenated form. Compound nouns that have become commonplace sometimes lose the space or hyphen over time. The hyphen or space between the first word and the second word can sometimes depend on the parts of speech of the separate words used to form the noun phrase. Some are connected differently in American English and British English depending on the category of English compound. Compound nouns can be formed from an abstract noun, common noun, concrete noun, and more.
To form the plural, you will add the s to the end of the noun in the compound noun, i.e. sisters-in-law versus sister-in-laws.
Many different languages also contain words that mean compound. You may notice that some of these translations of compound look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of compound is provided by Word Sense.
- Irish: comh- (of words)
- French: composé
- Slovene: sestavljen
- Maori: pūhui
- Persian: آمیخته (âmixta), همساخته (hamsâxta), مرکب
- Spanish: compuesto (masc.)
- Czech: složený (masc.)
- Portuguese: composto (masc.)
- Greek: σύνθετος, συμμιγής
- Tagalog: langkapin, lambalan, linambal
- Bokmål: sammensatt
- Finnish: yhdistetty, yhdys-; kerrannainen (botany)
- Russian: составно́й, сло́жный
- Swedish: sammansatt
- Bulgarian: съставен, сло́жен
- Italian: composto (masc.), costituito (masc.)
- Dutch: samengesteld
What are examples of compound nouns?
A compound noun can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or literary technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are many examples of compound nouns from Your Dictionary that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. Try to use the term compound noun today or notice when someone else is using a compound noun. There are many common combinations you might see of different forms of compound noun examples.
- Haircut
- Swimming pool
- Passer-by
- Full moon
- Dry cleaning
- Wallpaper
- Basketball
- Hanger-on
- Toothpaste
- Bystander
- Public speaking
- Drawback
- Bluebird
- Green house
- Rainfall
- Input
- Fish tank
- Attorney general (pl. Attorneys general)
- Take-off
- Checkout
- Ice cream
- Real estate
- High school
- Softball
- Chopstick
- Six-pack
- Son-in-law
- Post office
- Hot dog
- Fish tank
What are other literary techniques and devices?
There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.
- parenthetical | parenthetically
- indirect object
- construed (const., constr.)
- prepositional object
- verbal noun
- element
- positive
- imperative (imper.)
- dual
- that-clause
- quasi-
- collective noun
- subject
- gender
- personal pronoun
- direct object
- collocation | collocate
- copular verb | copula
- third-person
- clause
- declarative
- adverb (adv.)
- possessive
- compound | compounding
- complementary
- anaphoric
- parasynthetic
- dative
- infinitive
- protasis
- possessive pronoun
- preposition (prep.)
- anticipatory
- interrogative
- filler
- double object
- indirect question
- plural
- postmodify | postmodifier
- instrumental
- nominal relative | nominal relative clause
- optative
- past tense
- objective
- vocative
- attributive
- second person
- part of speech
- antecedent
- subjective
- head
- common noun
- subjunctive
- construction
- inflection | inflected | inflectional
- prefix
- phrase (phr.)
- possessive adjective
- simple
- apposition
- past participle
- nominative
- gerund
- causative
- modify | modifier
- interjection
- predicative
- absolute (absol.)
- cognate object
- intransitive
- person
- participial adjective
- appositive
- phrasal verb
- count noun
- conjunction (conj.)
- noun phrase
- demonstrative
- ellipsis | elliptical
- transitive
- accusative
- bare infinitive
- main verb
- auxiliary verb | auxiliary
- pro-form
- indirect passive
- suffix
- genitive
- proper noun | proper name
- present participle
- mass noun
- unmarked genitive
- feminine
- mood
- modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
- apodosis and protasis
- comparative
- neuter
- non-finite
- passive
- non-referential
- direct speech
- passive infinitive
- indicative
- active
- present tense
- superlative
- conditional
- relative
- progressive
- indirect speech
- periphrasis | periphrastic
- masculine
- adjective
- impersonal (impers.)
- predicate
- indefinite
- prepositional passive
- tense
- agent noun
- subordinate clause
- noun (n.)
- combining form (comb. form)
- case
- zero
- definite article
- stem
- verb (v.)
- concrete
- direct question
- finite
- pronoun (pron.)
- number
- similative
- locative
- object | direct object | indirect object
- reflexive
- singular
- morpheme
- complement
- participle | past participle | present participle
- determiner
- adverbial | adverbially
- article
- perfect
- premodify | premodifier
- main clause
- abstract
- cataphoric
- base form
- prepositional phrase
- agree | agreement
- intensifier
- pleonasm | pleonastic
- sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
- combination
- to-infinitive
- special use
- first person
Overall, the word compound noun refers to a noun that is made of more than one word. This can be a noun and an adjective, a noun and a verb, two nouns, a noun and a preposition, and more.
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