# pronoun
## English
### Alternative forms

* pronoune (obsolete)

### Etymology

From pro- +‎ noun, modeled on Middle French pronom, from Latin pronomen, itself a calque of Ancient Greek ᾰ̓ντωνῠμῐ́ᾱ (ăntōnŭmĭ́ā).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈpɹəʊnaʊn/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈpɹoʊ.naʊn/
* Audio (US):(file)
* (Indic) IPA: /ˈproːnawn/, /proˈnawn/
* Rhymes: -əʊnaʊn, -oʊnaʊn

### Noun

pronoun (plural pronouns)
* (grammar) A type of word that refers anaphorically to a noun or noun phrase, but which cannot ordinarily be preceded by a determiner and rarely takes an attributive adjective.
** 1789, Jean Baptiste, A grammar of the French tongue, page 193:The possessive conjunctive pronoun is always repeated before a substantive, and after a conjunction; as my brothers and sisters, mes frères & mes sœurs; […]
** 1997, Kevin Smith, Chasing Amy:Dalia: Why are you playing the pronoun game? Alyssa: What? What are you talking about? I'm not even. Dalia: You are. "I met someone." "We have a great time. "They're from my home town." Doesn't this tube of wonderful have a name!
** 2013, Nicholas Brownless, “Spoken Discourse in Early English Newspapers”, in Joad Raymond, editor, News Networks in Seventeenth Century Britain and Europe, page 72:As here the possessive pronoun 'our' has inclusive reference in that it a priori includes both the editor and reader, its presence amounts to a kind of pronominal bonding between writer and reader.
* (Should we delete this sense?) (chiefly in the plural) Any of the third-person pronouns by which a person prefers to be described, typically reflecting gender identity.
    My pronouns are she/her.
** 2019, Genny Beemyn, editor, Trans People in Higher Education, SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 178:The vast majority (82 percent) of the nonbinary trans students I interviewed used nonbinary pronouns for themselves, and all said that they were rarely given the opportunity to indicate their pronouns.
** 2023 August 31, Frankie de la Cretaz, “Postcard from Camp Gaylore”, in Cosmopolitan‎:Then an earnest elaboration: “It’s just nice that other people understand what I’m thinking. I don’t have to explain a million things. I don’t have to be like, Okay, I guess I’ll let you ignore my pronouns. It’s a very good space.”
** 2023, Miriam Grossman, Lost in Trans Nation:You can refuse to use pronouns and alternate names and still show love to your child. Be clear and succinct.
** 2025 March 6, Erum Salam, quoting Greg Abbott, “Elon Musk and Texas governor celebrate firing of worker over pronouns in email signature”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:Abbott celebrated the move on X, sharing a report from the Austin American-Statesman on the firing and writing: “A Texas state employee refused to remove pronouns from email signature. He was fired before noon.”

#### Hypernyms

* part of speech
* pro-form

#### Derived terms

* adjectival pronoun
* adjective pronoun
* copy pronoun
* demonstrative pronoun
* determinative pronoun
* donkey pronoun
* dummy pronoun
* emphasizing pronoun
* emphatic pronoun
* epicene pronoun
* gender-neutral pronoun
* indefinite pronoun
* intensive pronoun
* interrogative pronoun
* neopronoun
* nounself pronoun
* noun-self pronoun
* object pronoun
* perpendicular pronoun
* personal pronoun
* play the pronoun game
* possessive pronoun
* prepositional pronoun
* pronoun demonstrative
* reciprocal pronoun
* reflexive possessive pronoun
* reflexive pronoun
* relative pronoun
* resumptive pronoun
* shadow pronoun
* Spivak pronoun
* subject pronoun
* substantival pronoun
* substantive pronoun
* weak pronoun

#### Related terms

* pronominal

#### Descendants

* → Pohnpeian: pronaun

#### See also

* Thesaurus:pronoun