Nonentities

Nonentities are entities that do not exist or have no real-world referent. The term is used across philosophy, linguistics, and semantics to describe things discussed in speech or thought that fail to pick out actual objects, such as fictional characters, mythical beings, or abstract concepts.

In ontology and metaphysics, some theories accommodate nonentities as intentional objects that can be aboutness without existing. The philosopher Gottlob Frege and, more explicitly, others such as Meinong explored how terms can refer to objects that do not exist. This raises questions about truth conditions, reference, and meaning when discussing statements about nonentities.

In linguistics and semantics, nonentities appear in discourse and in expressions that do not reliably refer to real-world entities. Examples include phrases like “the unicorn,” “the present king of France,” or other fictional or hypothetical referents. Such expressions challenge straightforward referential analysis and motivate distinctions between referring terms and nonreferential or context-dependent expressions. In fictional or counterfactual contexts, speakers may treat nonentities as if they inhabit a constructed or hypothetical world, enabling meaningful communication about imagined scenarios.

In practice, the study of nonentities helps clarify how language communicates about existence, possibility, and imagination, and it informs methods for reference resolution in philosophy of language and natural language processing. See also: fictional character, nonexistence, ontology, Meinong, empty name, reference.