nouns - Is there a term for words that have identical singular and plural forms?


Is there a term for nouns that have identical singular and plural forms? For example,



  • sheep

  • fish

  • glasses

  • aircraft/spacecraft


etc.



Answer



According to Wikipedia, some of these are called defective nouns:



Some nouns have no singular form. Such a noun is called a plurale tantum.



For example, glasses, pants, and scissors are all defective nouns because they have no singular form. As these are plurale tantum, the opposite is singularia tantum--nouns with no plural form.


However, examples like sheep and fish are simply irregular plurals.


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