Join free

nominal

English · Español · Français · Deutsch · Português · Română · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

nominal

  • /ˈnɒm.ɪ.nl̩/ UK
  • [ˈnɒm.ɪ.nl̩] UK
  • /ˈnɑ.mɪ.nl̩/ Canada, US
  • [ˈnɑ.mɪ.nl̩] Canada, US

Where it comes from

PIE word

*h₁nómn̥

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥

Proto-Italic *nōmn̥

Latin nōmen

Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-

Proto-Indo-European *-is

Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.?

Proto-Italic *-ālis

Latin -ālis

Latin nōminālisder.

Middle English nominalle

English nominal

From the Middle English nominalle (“of nouns”), borrowed from Latin nōminālis (“of names”), ultimately from oblique stem of Latin nōmen, nōminis (“name”) + -al.

adjective

  1. not comparable Of, resembling, relating to, or consisting of a name or names.
  2. not comparable Assigned to or bearing a person's name.
  3. not comparable Existing in name only. a nominal difference

    Similar: ceremonial

  4. not comparable Of or relating to nominalism.
  5. not comparable Insignificantly small. He gave me only a nominal sum for my services.

    Similar: trifling

  6. not comparable Of or relating to the presumed or approximate value, rather than the actual value. The nominal voltage is 1.5 V, but the actual figure is usually higher.

    Opposite: effective

  7. not comparable Of, relating to, or being the amount or face value of a sum of money or a stock certificate, for example, and not the purchasing power or market value.
  8. not comparable Of, relating to, or being the rate of interest or return without adjustment for compounding or inflation.
  9. not comparable Of or relating to a noun or word group that functions as a noun. This sentence contains a nominal phrase.
  10. not comparable According to plan or design. We'll just do a nominal flight check.

    Similar: normal

  11. not comparable Without adjustment to remove the effects of inflation. My employer does not understand how low my nominal wage is.

    Opposite: real

  12. not comparable, of a variable Having values whose order is insignificant.
  13. not comparable Of a species, the species name without consideration of whether it is a junior synonym or in reality consists of more than one biological species. Since then, a good deal of research has documented and concluded that the nominal species A. fraterculus actually comprises an unresolved complex of cryptic species.

noun nominals

  1. A noun or word group that functions as part of a noun phrase. This sentence contains two nominals.
  2. A part of speech that shares features with nouns and adjectives. (Depending on the language, it may comprise nouns, adjectives, possibly numerals, pronouns, and participles.) A considerable number of derived nominals, especially thematic nouns, also exhibited o-grade roots.
  3. A number (usually natural) used like a name; a numeric code or identifier. (See nominal number on Wikipedia.) Numeric codes of characters used in programming are nominals.
  4. UK, jargon A person listed in the Police National Computer database as having been convicted, cautioned or recently arrested.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: nominative, token, tokenish, formal, titular, specified, minimal, minimum, gerundive, theorist, theoretical, theoretically, name, emblematic, symbolic, notional

Translations

Every language

adj of or relating to a name or names

Españolnominal
हिन्दीनाममात्र nāmmātr
Portuguêsnominal
Françaisnominal
Italianonominale
Ελληνικάονομαστικός onomastikós
Românănominal
Русскийименно́й imennój

adj of or relating to the presumed or approximate value

Españolnominal
Русскийномина́льный nominálʹnyj

adj of or relating to a noun

Españolnominal
Portuguêsnominal
Françaisnominal
Deutschnominal, substantivisch
Italianonominale
Românănominal
Русскийименно́й imennój

adj according to plan or design

Españolen fa, normal
Русскийштатный štatnyj

adj economics: without adjustment to remove the effects of inflation

Españolnominal
Portuguêsnominal
Русскийномина́льный nominálʹnyj

adj statistics: having values whose order is insignificant

Русскийномина́льный nominálʹnyj

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"nominal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/nominal. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

APA

nominal. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/nominal

Chicago

"nominal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 5, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/nominal.

BibTeX
@misc{nominal_2026,
  title = {nominal},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/nominal},
  urldate = {2026-11-05}
}