Adjectives used as nouns

As you know, adjectives and nouns are different parts of speech. A noun is a word that refers to a person, animal, thing, or idea, and an adjective describes a noun. For example, in the phrase 'a clever boy', 'clever' is an adjective, and 'boy' is a noun.

In English, some adjectives can function as nouns. These are adjectival nouns.

Let’s look at the following examples:

• I read about the lifestyle of the rich and famous.
• We provide health care for the poor and elderly.

'The rich', 'the famous', 'the poor', and 'the elderly' are adjectives used as nouns. These expressions mean people considered together as a group. For example, the rich means people who are rich.

As you can see, these nouns are always plural and used with the definite article.

Here are some examples of plural adjectival nouns with their definitions:

The blind	People who…	cannot see
The deaf		cannot hear
The destitute		have no money or possessions
The dead		are no longer alive
The dying		are about to die
The elderly		are old
The faithful		belive in a religion
The homeless		have no home
The injured		have been injured in an accident or attack
The insane		are mentally ill
The jobless		are unemployed
The old		are no longer young
The poor		have little money
The rich		have a lot of money
The sick		are physically or mentally ill
The wealthy		are rich
The wicked		are morally bad
The wounded		are injured by a weapon
The young		have lived for only a short time