Nouns That Start With E

A noun is defined as a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns are often accompanied by articles, like “a,” “an,” and “the.” They also like to act as the subject of a sentence. For example, “The emerald loves to shimmer and shine.”

Nouns can also function as the object of a sentence. That means they’ll come after the verb in the sentence. For example, “Prince Charming roamed the Earth looking for Snow White.” Nouns also function as names, including people, cities, states, countries, and more.

You won’t be hard-pressed to spot some of these E-nouns in your everyday life. If it’s the winter, you may come across a friend with an earache. Who knows if that’ll also be the season you spot a lunar eclipse? Perhaps more commonly, you’ll enter an event into your planner today.

Ready to stretch your vocabulary? Here are 50 nouns that start with E.

1. Eagerness - a feeling of excitement or anticipation to do something
2. Eagle - a bird of prey with powerful wings and keen eyesight
3. Earache - an ache or pain in the ear
4. Earnestness - the quality of being sincere or serious
5. Earth - the planet that we live on
6. Easter - a Sunday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ
7. Ebony - a dark black color
8. Eccentric - a person who deviates from an established norm
9. Echo - a sound that repeats after the original sound has ended
10. Eclipse - an obscuring of light, particularly of the sun or moon
11. Economics - a science that deals with the distribution and purchasing of goods and services
12. Ecstasy - a feeling of intense joy, happiness, or passion
13. Edginess - the state of being anxious
14. Edition - a version of something
15. Education - the process of gaining knowledge
16. Eeriness - the condition of being mysterious or frightening
17. Effect - a result or change that is caused by something else
18. Efficiency - the ability to produce something with a minimum amount of effort
19. Effort - the use of physical or mental energy
20. Eggshell - the hard, brittle outer covering of an egg
21. Ego - the view that a person has of himself
22. Egret - a type of heron with long, white plumes
23. Egyptian - a native or inhabitant of Egypt
24. Eiderdown - the soft, fine feathers of an eider duck, used as stuffing for pillows and quilts
25. Ejector - a jet pump for lifting water or withdrawing air from a space
26. Elaboration - the act or process of refining, expanding or improving something
27. Elation - a feeling of great happiness or joy
28. Elbow - the joint that bends between the top and bottom parts of the arm
29. Elderberry - a small red or purplish-black berry-like fruit
30. Elegance - full of richness, grace, and etiquette
31. Embargo - a trade restriction imposed on a specific product or from a specific country
32. Embellishment - fancy details added on to make something look nicer
33. Embrace - a hug
34. Emerald - a transparent, bright-green precious stone
35. Employee - a person who works for a company in exchange for compensation
36. Enchantment - a feeling of great delight
37. Enclosure - something that keeps people or things inside
38. Endgame - the final stage of something
39. Enjoyment - a state of feeling pleasure
40. Epic - a story or long poem telling the take of a fictional or historical hero
41. Episode - a part or scene of a story
42. Equality - the condition of being the same in quality, measure or value
43. Equipment - what a person, group, or thing needs for a given purpose
44. Era - a period of time in history that’s unified by culture or historical factors
45. Errand - a task you have to do
46. Escapism - the tendency to escape from reality by indulging in fantasy
47. Eternity - an endless amount of time
48. Event - something that takes place
49. Explosion - a sudden outburst or blast
50. Eyelash - any of the short hairs that fringe the edge of the eyelid

Did you know there are over 10 different types of nouns? That takes the definition of “person, place, thing, or idea” to new heights. If a noun is referring to a name, it’s most likely a proper noun (e.g. Killian, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Portugal, and the White House). An example of that might be: In the new year, I hope to move to Oklahoma.

The opposite of a proper noun is a common noun. These refer to general, unspecified entities. In the sentence above, Oklahoma is a proper noun. But if that line simply read, “In the new year, I hope to move to a new city,” you’d know there was a common noun in there. Common nouns are neither capitalized nor specific.

You’ve also got compound nouns (e.g., keyboard and redhead), countable nouns, possessive nouns, and pronouns (e.g., I, me, mine, she, her, he, him, our, and us). In fact, it’s common to see both nouns and pronouns in a single sentence: “Mary realized Monica gave the envelope to her.”

Did any of those 50 words surprise you? Or have you fallen into any grammar traps over the years and misspelled them? How about the trickiness that lies between affect and effect? Those two homophones have been duping writers for generations.

Let’s take a look at 10 of these E-class nouns in action. Click on the link in each sentence to see more example sentences containing that E-noun:

1. She was filled with eagerness to set sail for Ireland.

2. The entire village labeled her an eccentric.

3. His leaving had a tremendous effect on her.

4. She wrote her first story with a minimum of effort.

5. Her main character fell in love with a gorgeous Egyptian.

6. Her wedding gown was laced in elegance.

7. The emerald guided her to the lost treasure.

8. As soon as he met her, he was filled with enchantment.

9. You don’t have to be an ancient Greek philosopher to write an epic.

10. Fantasy novels are a form of escapism.

Now that you know quite a few nouns that start with E, continue building your vocabulary of words that begin with this letter. It’s easy to do with the tool for finding words that start with E on WordFinder by YourDictionary. Use the on-screen search features to quickly pull together a list of terms that begin with this letter. You can search for words that start with or contain a certain combination of letters, as well as specify the last letter.

Reading offers us the opportunity for endless education. The more we read, the more we advance our vocabulary. If, however, you’d like to turn the tide from reader to writer, it’s helpful to have a robust vocabulary list at hand.

While the vowels A and E are pretty popular, consonants are obviously integral to the language too. Here’s a list of 50 nouns that start with N. From there, see if you can pull a little writing inspiration with these examples of short stories!