What is a Noun? A noun is a person, place, or thing. Nouns can also be ideas, such as happiness, freedom, or peace, but most students at this point in their writing journeys are not ready for nouns as ideas. It may be helpful to think of a noun as something students can touch or draw. For example, a mouse is a noun. I can hold it in my hand, and I can draw it. However, jumping is not a noun because I can’t touch jumping. You could draw a picture of a kid jumping, but the kid would be the noun, n