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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

notional en · ADJ

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ˈnəʊʃənəl/ (UK)
  • /ˈnoʊʃənəl/ (General-American)

Etymology

From notion + -al.

Meanings

  1. Of, containing, or being a notion; mental or imaginary.
    • Near-synonyms: conceptual, fancied, fanciful, ideal
    • He was now receiving reports of a second suspect Anglo Leasing deal, this time for the notional provision of a state-of-the-art police forensic laboratory. 2009, Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower:
    • The idea that a rooster says cock-a-doodle-doo rather than ooh ooh-ooh ooh-ooh is socially conventional even though its sound correspondence is at heart notional.
  2. Speculative, theoretical, not the result of research.
    • This paper proposes a notional Federated Identity Management (FIM) architecture.
  3. (Maine) Stubborn.
  4. Having descriptive value as opposed to a syntactic category.
  5. Used to indicate an estimate or a reference amount
    • Under the agreements, Harvard paid the banks fixed interest rates on a total notional amount of $3.52 billion in exchange for floating-rate payments from them. 2009 March 3, “Harvard Accepts Higher Debt Costs as Bankers Profit”, in Bloomberg:
    • Gold traded at $909.00 an ounce, up 0.2 percent from New York's notional close of $906.65 on Wednesday. 2009 March 11, “Gold inches up on bargain hunt, ETF hits record”, in Ninemsn:
  6. (informal) Full of ideas or imaginings.
    • She knew what Pete would say if she told him about it — he would say she was getting notional; and she did not want Pete to think of her as a notional woman. Notional women sometimes had a hard time marrying unless they had money. 1995, Walter D. Edmonds, In the Hands of the Senecas, page 137:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
most notional Degree=Sup lexicographic
more notional Degree=Cmp lexicographic

Deriveds

notionalness · notionalist · notional amount · notionally · notionality · nonnotional

Synonyms

ideal · conceptual (being a notion) · conceptual (of a notion) · ideal (of a notion) · imaginary (being a notion) · fanciful · conceptual · ideal (being a notion) · fancied

Translations (19)

de rein gedanklich (speculative, theoretical) · es nocional (of, containing, or being a notion) · ca nocional (speculative, theoretical) · bg въображаем (speculative, theoretical) · gl nocional (of, containing, or being a notion) · de theoretisch (speculative, theoretical) · fr notionnel (finance: estimated or reference) · fi kuvitteellinen (speculative, theoretical) · bg умозрителен (of, containing, or being a notion) · de spekulativ (speculative, theoretical) · bg абстрактен (of, containing, or being a notion) · fr notionnel (of, containing, or being a notion) · fr notionnel (linguistics: having descriptive value) · fi viite- (finance: estimated or reference) · gl nocional (linguistics: having descriptive value) · gl nocional (speculative, theoretical) · fi kuvitteellinen (of, containing, or being a notion) · ca nocional (of, containing, or being a notion) · fi kuvaileva (linguistics: having descriptive value)

notional en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ˈnəʊʃənəl/ (UK)
  • /ˈnoʊʃənəl/ (General-American)

Etymology

From notion + -al.

Meanings

  1. A fake company used as a front in espionage.
    • Numerous CIA notionals, created to counter Communist organizations in Western Europe during the Cold War years, remain active and unrevealed. 2012, Joseph C. Goulden, Peter Earnest, The Dictionary of Espionage: Spyspeak Into English, page 157:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
notionals Number=Plur lexicographic