# universal grinder

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˌjuːnɪˌvɜːsl̩ ˈɡɹaɪndə/

## Definitions
1. A notional mechanism whereby countable nouns are made uncountable.

## Etymology
From universal + grinder, from the idea that an object that is countable can generally be turned uncountable if put into an imaginary grinder and reduced to a mass of small pieces. The term was first used in print in a 1975 journal article by the American linguist and philosopher Francis Jeffry Pelletier (born 1944), after a suggestion of the American philosopher David Kellogg Lewis (1941–2001): see the quotation.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/universal-grinder