A pronoun is a word that's used in place of a noun or noun phrase, like “he,” “she,” or “it,” in place of “Dusty,” “Carol,” or “the lemur.”
The word pronoun originally comes from the Latin pronomen, which broken down means "for" or "in place of" and "name." The pronoun is a "stand-in" word for another noun, so you can use pronouns instead of repeating someone's name: "Charley went to the store and to Charley's office and then back to Charley's house" becomes "Charley went to the store and to his office and then back to his house."
