What is a Compound Noun?

A compound Noun is a type of noun in which two or more words are combined to give a specific meaning to a thing, place, etc. For example toothpaste, raincoat, bus stop, keyboard, mouse pad, bookshelf, face cream, army tank, cowboy, six-pack, etc.

Mostly in Compound Nouns (words), the first word always describes (refers or indicates) the second word and the second word gives the main idea or purpose.

For example, consider the word “toothbrush” –> (tooth + brush).

Here you can observe that the first word “tooth” describes the second word it is something related to the teeth and the second-word “brush” gives a clear purpose or idea.

The same thing goes for the toothpaste also –> (tooth + paste).

Also Read: Noun Definition and Examples | Best English Guide 2025

Types of Compound Nouns

Usually, Compound Noun is categorised into three types. Those are,

Closed/Solid/Single Words

The words which don’t have any spaces or hyphens between them are called as “Closed Word”. Examples are suitcase, crosswords, smartphone, keyboard, haircut, toothbrush, helipad, etc.

You can observe that the above-given words don’t have any spaces or hyphens between them.

Open/Spaced/two words

The words which have spaces but don’t have hyphens between them are called “Open Words”. Examples are School bell, post office, formal shoes, speed breaker, ice cream, plastic bag, etc.

Since these words don’t have hyphens but have space between them.

Hyphenated Words

The words which have hyphens between them are called “Hyphenated Words” (simply called “hyphen words”). These words don’t have spaces between them because hyphens are used in the spaces.

Examples are son-in-law, t-shirt, mother-in-law, e-mail, up-to-date, co-operation, good-looking, etc.

Rules of Compound Noun

The combined words which are used in Compound Noun can have various types of forms (parts of speech) like,

POS 1+ POS 2Example
nounnounraincoat
adjectivenounsmartphone
verbnounrunning shoes
verbprepositioncheck-out
nounprepositional phraseson-in-law
prepositionnoununderground
nounadjectivesuccessful

Plural Forms of Compound Noun

Usually, Compound Nouns have two forms. That is Singular Compound Nouns and Plural Compound Nouns.

Singular Compound Noun refers to a thing, place, etc., whereas Plural Compound Noun refers to more than one thing, place, etc.

Now let us see the examples of these forms given in the table below.

Singular Compound NounPlural Compound Noun
bus stopbus stops
ice creamice creams
paper clippaper clips
waterfallwaterfalls
movie ticketmovie tickets
radio waveradio waves
formal shoeformal shoes
bookshelfbookshelves
banana leafbanana leaves
butterflybutterflies
brother-in-lawbrothers-in-law
father-in-lawfathers-in-law

Some important points that you need to remember:

Example Statement:

For example, consider the below table.

Singular FormPF (Noun)(or)PF (Adj)
glassfulglassesful orglassfuls
spoonfulspoonsfulorspoonfuls
handfulhandsfulorhandfuls
bucketfulbucketsfulorbucketfuls

So, you can see that Plural form for hyphenated words can be used in both ways. You can consider plural form of noun or adjective because both of them are acceptable.

But we recommend you to use only one type of words (your choice – either plural form of noun or adjective) for the entire sentence or paragraphs.

Quiz Time! (Test your knowledge here)

[HDquiz quiz = 131]

Summary: (What is Compound Noun?)

What is Compound Noun?
(What is Compound Noun?)

If you are interested in learning more, then you can refer to Wikipedia by clicking here.

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