A
verbal noun is a
noun formed from or otherwise corresponding to a
verb. Different languages have different types of verbal noun and different ways of forming and using them. An example of a verbal noun in
English is the word
singing in the sentence "Singing is fun" (this is a noun formed from the verb
sing). Verbal nouns may be
non-finite verb forms such as
infinitives or
gerunds in English (or
Latin) usage. They may also be "pure" verbal nouns, formed from verbs, but behaving grammatically entirely like nouns rather than verbs (not taking direct objects, for example). Such cases may also be called
deverbal nouns.