Noun

=== Concrete nouns and abstract nouns ===
{{Further|Physical body|Abstract object}}
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''Concrete nouns'' refer to [[physical bodies|physical entities]] that can, in principle at least, be observed by at least one of the [[sense]]s (''chair'', ''apple'', ''Janet'', ''atom''), as items supposed to exist in the physical world. ''Abstract nouns'', on the other hand, refer to [[abstract object]]s: ideas or concepts (''justice'', ''anger'', ''solubility'', ''duration'').

Some nouns have both concrete and abstract meanings: ''art'' usually refers to something abstract ("Art is important in human culture"), but it can also refer to a concrete item ("I put my daughter's art up on the fridge"). A noun might have a literal (concrete) and also a figurative (abstract) meaning: "a brass ''key''" and "the ''key'' to success"; "a ''block'' in the pipe" and "a mental ''block''". Similarly, some abstract nouns have developed etymologically by figurative extension from literal roots (''drawback'', ''fraction'', ''holdout'', ''uptake'').

Many abstract nouns in English are formed by adding a suffix (''-ness'', ''-ity'', ''-ion'') to adjectives or verbs (''happiness'' and ''serenity'' from the adjectives ''happy'' and ''serene''; ''circulation'' from the verb ''circulate'').