en-ord

Swedish

Etymology

Compound of en (“a, an”) +‎ ord (“word”). First attested in 1894

Pronunciation

• Homophone: n-ord

Noun

Examples (common noun)
en stol – den stolen a chair – that chair en katt – den katten a cat – that cat en vilja – den viljan a will – that will

en-ord n

1. (linguistics, colloquial) A common gender noun; a noun that pairs with en (“a, an”), -en (“definite form singular”) and den (“that”).

   Synonyms: utrum, n-ord

   Antonyms: ett-ord, neutrum

   • 2011 July 6, “En- och ett-ord [Common and neuter words]”, in Språket, Sveriges Radio:

     Jag har googlat lite på det här, men inte hittat särskilt mycket information. Någon trodde sig veta att ord som har någon koppling till människor, djur och natur oftast skulle vara en-ord. En annan teori var att låneord med ändelsen -tion också skulle vara en-ord.

     I’ve googled this a bit but haven’t found much information. Someone thought that words related to humans, animals, and nature were usually common gender words. Another theory was that loanwords ending in -tion would also typically be common gender words.

Declension

Declension of en-ord

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	en-ord	en-ords
	definite	en-ordet	en-ordets
plural	indefinite	en-ord	en-ords
	definite	en-orden	en-ordens