uncountable

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ countable.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʌnˈkaʊntəbəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

uncountable (not comparable)

1. So many as to be incapable of being counted.

   The reasons for our failure were as uncountable as the grains of sand on a beach.

2. (mathematics) Incapable of being put into one-to-one correspondence with the natural numbers or any subset thereof.

   Cantor’s “diagonal proof” shows that the set of real numbers is uncountable.

3. (grammar, of a noun) That cannot be used freely with numbers or the indefinite article, and therefore usually takes no plural form. Example: information.

   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.

Synonyms

• (too many to be counted): countless; see also Thesaurus:innumerable
• (grammar): non-count

Antonyms

• countable

Hypernyms

• (set theory): infinite

Derived terms

• uncountability
• uncountable noun
• uncountable set
• uncountably

 

Translations

too many to be counted

• Afrikaans: ontelbaar (af)
• Armenian: անհաշվելի (hy) (anhašveli)
• Bulgarian: неизброим (bg) (neizbroim)
• Danish: talrig, utællelig (da)
• Dutch: ontelbaar (nl)
• Estonian: loendamatu
• Finnish: lukematon (fi)
• French: indénombrable (fr) m or f
• Georgian: უთვალავი (utvalavi), ურიცხვი (uricxvi), აურაცხელი (auracxeli), უამრავი (uamravi)
• German: unzählig (de), zahllos (de), unzählbar (de)
• Hindi: बेशुमार (hi) (beśumār), अनगिनत (hi) (anginat), बेहिसाब (hi) (behisāb), अगणित (hi) (agṇit)
• Hungarian: számtalan (hu)
• Italian: innumerevole (it), incalcolabile (it)
• Japanese: 無数の (musū-no), 数えきれないほどの (kazoe kirenai hodo no)
• Latvian: neskaitāmi m pl, neskaitāmas f pl
• Macedonian: непреброив (neprebroiv)
• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: utellelig (no)

  Norwegian Nynorsk: uteljeleg, uteljande (nn)

• Persian: بی‌شمار (bi-šomâr)
• Polish: niepoliczalny
• Portuguese: incontável (pt) m or f
• Romanian: nenumărabil (ro) m or n
• Russian: бессчётный (ru) (bessčótnyj), бесчи́сленный (ru) (besčíslennyj), неисчисли́мый (ru) (neisčislímyj)
• Slovene: neštet
• Spanish: incontable (es)
• Swedish: oräknelig (sv)
• Turkish: sayılamayan (tr)
• Welsh: anrhifadwy, anghyfrifadwy

mathematics: incapable of being enumerated by natural numbers

• Afrikaans: ontelbaar (af)
• Czech: nespočetný (cs) m
• Danish: overtællelig
• Dutch: overaftelbaar
• Finnish: ylinumeroituva (fi), numeroitumaton (fi)
• French: indénombrable (fr) m or f
• German: überabzählbar (de)
• Hindi: अगणित (hi) (agṇit), अनगिनत (hi) (anginat)
• Hungarian: megszámlálhatatlan (hu)
• Italian: non numerabile (it)
• Japanese: 非可算 (ひかさん, hikasan)
• Macedonian: непреброив (neprebroiv)
• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: utellbar

• Persian: شمارشناپذیر
• Polish: nieprzeliczalny
• Portuguese: incontável (pt) m or f
• Romanian: nenumărabil (ro) m or n
• Slovene: nešteven
• Spanish: incontable (es)
• Swedish: ouppräknelig (sv)
• Turkish: hesaplanamaz
• Welsh: anrhifadwy, anghyfrifadwy

linguistics: about a noun which cannot be counted

• Amharic: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: անհաշվելի (hy) (anhašveli)
• Breton: please add this translation if you can
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: incomptable (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不可數／不可数 (zh) (bùkěshǔ)

• Czech: nespočetný (cs)
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: ontelbaar (nl)
• Estonian: loendamatu
• Finnish: luvuton (fi)
• French: indénombrable (fr) m or f
• Georgian: უთვლადი (utvladi)
• German: unzählbar (de)
• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: megszámlálhatatlan (hu), nem számszerű
• Irish: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: non numerabile (it), invariabile (it)
• Japanese: 不可算 (ja) (ふかさん, fukasan)
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: vienskaitlinieks m
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Malay: please add this translation if you can
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: utellelig (no)

  Norwegian Nynorsk: uteljeleg, uteljande (nn)

• Occitan: please add this translation if you can
• Odia: please add this translation if you can
• Oromo: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: شمارشناپذیر
• Polish: niepoliczalny
• Portuguese: incontável (pt) m or f
• Romanian: nenumărabil (ro) m or n, inumerabil
• Russian: неисчисля́емый (neisčisljájemyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: please add this translation if you can
• Sinhalese: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: please add this translation if you can
• Slovene: nešteven
• Somali: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: incontable (es)
• Swedish: icke räknebar (sv), oräknebar (sv)
• Tagalog: please add this translation if you can
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: please add this translation if you can
• Tetum: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: sayılamaz (tr)
• Urdu: please add this translation if you can
• Uyghur: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: anrhifadwy, anghyfrifadwy

Noun

uncountable (plural uncountables)

1. (grammar) An uncountable noun.
   • 1988, Anna Wierzbicka, The Semantics of Grammar, page 440:

     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.

See also

• (mathematics) infinite
• (mathematics) innumerable
• (linguistics) mass noun
• (linguistics) singulare tantum
• Category:Uncountable nouns by language