COMMON NOUN. A NOUN referring to anything or anybody as an example of what the word in question denotes (an actor, the town, cheerfulness), in contrast with a PROPER noun, which uniquely identifies and NAMES, and begins with a capital letter (London, China). Grammatically, common nouns can be divided into countable and uncountable nouns. Semantically, common nouns can be classified as abstract and concrete nouns.

com·mon noun • n. Gram. a noun denoting a class of objects or a concept as opposed to a particular individual. Often contrasted with proper noun.