Template:en-noun/documentation

This is the standard inflection template for English nouns.

Extended guide
Use this template to show the inflection line of an English singular noun.

This template shows the noun in bold (optionally linking its components) and its plural inflections, if any.

If the term has uncountable senses, the template can indicate whether the term is sometimes or never countable. Specifying  as the first parameter indicates that a term is uncountable, and no plural is shown by default. If it may occasionally be used as countable, specify the plural form after it.

Specifying  instead indicates that the term is used more or less equally as countable and as uncountable, and uses the default plural.

In entries for English plural-only nouns, use :

Plural parameters
The default plural is formed as follows: If the noun forms its plural according to these rules, no parameters are necessary. E.g. on "cherry":
 * 1) If the noun ends in -s, -x, -z, -sh or -ch, add -es.
 * 2) If the noun ends in -y preceded by a consonant (any letter other than a, e, i, o or u), change the -y to -i and add -es.
 * 3) Otherwise, add -s.

The above code displays as follows:
 *  Noun 
 * cherry (plural cherries)

If the noun forms its plural in any other way (e.g. on "mouse"):
 * erratum (plural errata)
 * mouse (plural mice)
 * mouse (plural mice)
 * mouse (plural mice)

Likewise, if the noun is identical in the plural, but still countable, specify it, e.g. on "Abkhaz":
 * Abkhaz (plural Abkhaz)
 * Abkhaz (plural Abkhaz)

To explicitly request the default plural, use. This is not necessary if the word only has one plural, but it is useful if the noun has multiple plurals, e.g. on "octopus":
 * octopus (plural octopuses or octopi or octopodes)
 * octopus (plural octopuses or octopi or octopodes)

If the noun is uncountable, use, e.g. on "awe":
 * awe (uncountable)
 * awe (uncountable)

If the noun is usually uncountable, use  followed by an explicit plural, e.g. on "reality":
 * reality (usually uncountable, plural realities)
 * reality (usually uncountable, plural realities)

If the noun is either countable or uncountable, use, e.g. on "beer" and "geometry":
 * beer (countable and uncountable; plural beers)
 * geometry (countable and uncountable; plural geometries)
 * geometry (countable and uncountable; plural geometries)
 * geometry (countable and uncountable; plural geometries)

If you want to qualify a plural, use plNqual:
 * tree (plural trees or (obsolete) treen)
 * tree (plural trees or (obsolete) treen)

Other parameters

 * head, head2, ...
 * Override the headword display; used to add links to individual words in a multiword term.


 * 1 or 1
 * Specify that the term is normally preceded the definite article the. When given, the will appear at the beginning of the headword.


 * ~ or ~
 * Specify that the term is optionally preceded the definite article the. When given, two headwords will be generated, one with the and one without.


 * id
 * Sense ID for linking to this headword. See senseid for more information.


 * 1, 1, 1, 1
 * Control how multiword terms are linked. See Module:en-headword/documentation for more information.


 * 1
 * Prevent terms beginning with a hyphen from being interpreted as suffixes. See Module:en-headword/documentation for more information.


 * 1
 * Prevent multiword terms (those with spaces or with hyphens in the middle) from being added to Category:English multiword terms.


 * pagename
 * Override the page name used to compute default values of various sorts. Useful when testing, for documentation pages, etc.


 * sort
 * Sort key. Rarely needs to be specified, as it is normally automatically generated.

Pluralia tantum
If the word is a plurale tantum (always or usually used in the plural only, such as or ), then use p.

In addition to the parameters documented above, such terms support the following parameters:
 * sg, sg2, ...
 * Specify the singular version(s) of plurale tantum nouns that are occasionally found in the singular, e.g., , , etc.


 * attr, attr2, ...
 * Specify the attributive version(s) of the nouns, i.e. the form used when modifying another noun. Examples are with pant;  with boxer-short and boxer short; etc.

For example, for, use p.

Autosplitting
en-noun, as with all English headword-line templates, implements an intelligent, customized algorithm for automatically splitting and linking the components of a multiword term. See Module:en-headword/documentation for more information.

Suffix handling
en-noun, as with all English headword-line templates, will normally interpret a term beginning with a hyphen as a suffix and handle it specially. See Module:en-headword/documentation for more information.

Link modifications
en-noun, as with all English headword-line templates, has a special mechanism for overriding the default linking behavior of individual terms in a multiword expression without having to repeat the entire expression. See Module:en-headword/documentation for more information.