Grammatical number is a grammatical category expressing count-related distinctions, commonly singular and plural, through word forms or grammatical agreement. It is a feature of a linguistic expression, not simply the numerical size of the thing being described. Its categories do not always correspond directly to the count of real-world referents.[ref]
The contrast
boat/boats marks singular versus plural on a noun. Yet These scissors are blunt can describe one tool while using plural forms and plural grammatical agreement. Conversely, a committee can denote several people through a singular noun. An annotation should therefore record the grammatical feature separately from an investigator's count of objects. Some languages distinguish a dual category for exactly two, showing that the inventory of number categories is itself an empirical question.[ref]Essentials of Linguistics (2nd edition) by Catherine Anderson and others. §5.7, Number, singular/plural and dual distinctions
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Grammatical number is a linguistic category that expresses the quantity of the noun it refers to. It typically distinguishes between singular (one) and plural (more than one) forms of a word. Some languages also include dual (referring to exactly two items) as a grammatical number category. For example, in English: - The word "cat" is singular, referring to one cat. - The word "cats" is plural, referring to more than one cat.