uncountable

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ countable.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʌnˈkaʊntəbəl/
Audio (Southern England): (file)

Adjective

uncountable (not comparable)

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.
(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.
(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

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)

(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.