adjectivenoun

Adjectivenoun is a linguistic term used to describe a word that can function both as an adjective and as a noun in a given language. In English, many adjectives acquire nominal use when they occur with a definite determiner, allowing the adjective to stand for a class of people or things defined by that property. The resulting phrase often serves as a plural or collective noun, a process known as nominalization of the adjective.

Common examples in English include the rich, the poor, the elderly, the young, the sick, and the dead. In each case the adjective denotes a social group characterized by the property named by the adjective, and the phrase refers to people who share that characteristic rather than to the property itself. Some adjectives that denote nationality or group identity, such as the French or the English, also behave this way when used as nouns. Adjectivenouns typically require a determiner like the, a, or some to function as nouns.

Usage notes: The nominal use is more common with evaluative or social class terms and is generally found in discourse and formal writing, where it creates a generic reference to a group. The same adjective can often occur attributively before a noun (the rich man) or predicatively (the man is rich), but the bare adjective used as a noun is a distinct, noun-like construction. The choice between a finite noun phrase and a nominalized adjective can affect tone and clarity.

Cross-linguistic briefly, many languages allow adjectival classes to be referenced nominally, sometimes with different article or capitalization patterns. The phenomenon is typically described as nominalization of an adjective or as the use of an adjectival noun. See also nominalization, noun phrase, and demonyms.