NOMINAL

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does nominal mean? 

• NOMINAL (noun)
  The noun NOMINAL has 1 sense:

1. a phrase that can function as the subject or object of a verb

  Familiarity information: NOMINAL used as a noun is very rare.

• NOMINAL (adjective)
  The adjective NOMINAL has 6 senses:

1. relating to or constituting or bearing or giving a name

2. insignificantly small; a matter of form only ('tokenish' is informal)

3. pertaining to a noun or to a word group that functions as a noun

4. of, relating to, or characteristic of an amount that is not adjusted for inflation

5. named; bearing the name of a specific person

6. existing in name only

  Familiarity information: NOMINAL used as an adjective is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NOMINAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A phrase that can function as the subject or object of a verb

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

nominal; nominal phrase; noun phrase

Hypernyms ("nominal" is a kind of...):

phrase (an expression consisting of one or more words forming a grammatical constituent of a sentence)

• NOMINAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relating to or constituting or bearing or giving a name

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

taxable males as revealed by the nominal rolls

Pertainym:

name (a language unit by which a person or thing is known)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Insignificantly small; a matter of form only ('tokenish' is informal)

Synonyms:

nominal; token; tokenish

Context example:

a tokenish gesture

Similar:

minimal; minimum (the least possible)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Pertaining to a noun or to a word group that functions as a noun

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

noun phrase

Domain category:

grammar (the branch of linguistics that deals with syntax and morphology (and sometimes also deals with semantics))

Pertainym:

noun (the word class that can serve as the subject or object of a verb, the object of a preposition, or in apposition)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Of, relating to, or characteristic of an amount that is not adjusted for inflation

Context example:

nominal interest rates

Domain category:

economic science; economics; political economy (the branch of social science that deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management)

Antonym:

real (of, relating to, or representing an amount that is corrected for inflation)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Named; bearing the name of a specific person

Synonyms:

nominal; nominative

Context example:

nominative shares of stock

Similar:

specified (clearly and explicitly stated)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Existing in name only

Synonyms:

nominal; titular

Context example:

the nominal (or titular) head of his party

Similar:

formal (being in accord with established forms and conventions and requirements (as e.g. of formal dress))

 Context examples 

‘What do you call purely nominal?’

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Nominal Size of Focal Spot of Xray Tube.

(Focal Spot Size, NCI Thesaurus/DICOM)

Even your constant little heart need not take fright at such a nominal change.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Then there was a nominal request for his permission for a Russian translation, that country being likewise outside the Berne Convention.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Dear, dear Catherine, in being the bearer of such a message, I seem guilty myself of all its insult; yet, I trust you will acquit me, for you must have been long enough in this house to see that I am but a nominal mistress of it, that my real power is nothing.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Even before Miss Taylor had ceased to hold the nominal office of governess, the mildness of her temper had hardly allowed her to impose any restraint; and the shadow of authority being now long passed away, they had been living together as friend and friend very mutually attached, and Emma doing just what she liked; highly esteeming Miss Taylor's judgment, but directed chiefly by her own.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

But instead of having any thing to do, instead of having any profession chosen for me, or being allowed to chuse any myself, I returned home to be completely idle; and for the first twelvemonth afterwards I had not even the nominal employment, which belonging to the university would have given me; for I was not entered at Oxford till I was nineteen.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

‘Is purely nominal.’

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I took the paper from him and read as follows: TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., there is now another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a salary of £ 4 a week for purely nominal services.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)