Random Noun Generator

Common questions

Where do the nouns come from?

All 412 were typed out for this tool from ordinary knowledge of English, and each line carries its own plural next to it. No other generator's word list was copied, and once the page has loaded nothing else is fetched: the draw happens in your browser and what you choose stays there. A word had to pass one test before it went in: would somebody setting a warm-up, a writing prompt or a spelling drill recognise it without being told what it means. That rules out brands, proper nouns and technical vocabulary, which is why the list is common nouns rather than a dictionary.

Does it get irregular plurals right?

Yes, because it does not work them out. Every noun in the list carries the plural it actually takes, written beside it, so goose gives geese, child gives children, foot gives feet, knife gives knives, cactus gives cacti and crossroads gives crossroads. 35 of the 412 are plurals the ordinary -s, -es and -ies rule would have got wrong, and the page labels those as irregular while you look at them. Nine of those 35 are the same word in the plural, like sheep, deer and salmon, and they are labelled that way rather than quietly given an s.

What happens to a mass noun like sugar or information?

It is left singular and told to you. 69 of the 412 nouns are mass nouns, which English does not count: sugar, information, advice, wool, snow, news and the rest. Set the draw to plural and those rows come back as the word itself with the label mass noun, no plural, because handing you sugars would be inventing a form. If you only want nouns that do pluralise, draw from Animals, People, Places, Everyday objects or The body: none of those categories holds a mass noun.

Can I get the same list of nouns again?

Keep the seed. Every draw is made by a seeded shuffle, so the same seed with the same category, number and count returns the same nouns in the same order, on any machine and on any day. The seed is on screen and you can type one in: any whole number from 0 to 999999. Draw again rolls a fresh four-digit seed, and the seed is deliberately not remembered between visits, so coming back tomorrow gives you new words unless you type yesterday's seed back in. Asking for more nouns on the same seed keeps the ones already on screen and adds to them.

How many nouns can I draw at once?

From 1 to 100. A draw takes without replacement, so no noun comes up twice inside one round, however many you ask for. If you ask for more than the category holds, you get everything it has and the line under the tool says so: Abstract holds 25 nouns, so asking it for 100 hands back all 25 rather than repeating any to make up the number. Ask for more than 100 in total and the tool says so instead of quietly dealing a different number.

What are the nine categories, and how big is each one?

Animals (60), People (46), Places (44), Food and drink (56), Nature and weather (50), Everyday objects (70), The body (32), Abstract (25) and Materials (29). The split is there so a draw can suit the job: Animals and Everyday objects for a drawing game or a young class, The body and Animals for the old plurals, Materials and Abstract for the mass nouns, Places and People for a story prompt. Leave the category on Any and all 412 are in the pool.

Can I use this for a spelling or grammar lesson?

That is what the tags are for. Set the draw to plural and the page shows each noun with its plural beside it, marked irregular where the ordinary rule fails and marked as a mass noun where there is no plural at all, which is the pair of exceptions a plurals lesson usually has to hunt for by hand. Keep the seed written on the worksheet and the same class list comes back next year. Copy puts the drawn words on the clipboard, one per line, ready to paste into a document.