Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The present or particular occasion: "Her tendency to discover a touch of sadness had for the nonce disappeared” ( Theodore Dreiser).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- A word of no independent status, used only in the following phrases.
Wiktionary
- n. UK, slang, pejorative A sex offender, especially of children; a paedophile.
- n. UK, slang A stupid or worthless person.
- n. cryptography A datum constructed so as to be unique to a particular message in a stream, in order to prevent replay attacks.
- n. cryptography In a security engineering context, a value used only once.
- n. The one or single occasion; the present reason or purpose (now only in for the nonce).
- n. lexicography A nonce word.
- n. computing A number, usually generated randomly or from the time, used once in a cryptographic protocol, to prevent replay attacks.
- adj. denoting something occurring once.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The one or single occasion; the present call or purpose; -- chiefly used in the phrase for the nonce, i. e. for the present time.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the present occasion
Etymologies
- From a misdivision in Middle English of þan anes ("the one (occasion, instance)"). (Wiktionary)
- From Middle English for the nones, for the occasion, alteration of for then anes : for, for; see for + then : neuter dative sing. of the; see the1 + ones, anes, once; see once. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In the United Kingdom and Australia, the term nonce sometimes spelled "nonse" is a slang word used to refer to a sex offender and/or child sexual abuser.”
“Garman for the nonce was the courtier, the artistic idler, the dilettante in the art of luxurious living; and Payne, conscious of his dirt-smudged overalls, envied him the elegance with which he played the rôle.”
“Jap cartoons are fcuking weird anyway. true but should you be labelled a nonce for looking at a cartoon Steven:”
“Jap cartoons are fcuking weird anyway. true but should you be labelled a nonce for looking at a cartoon No victim = no crime?”
“They might best be called nonce usages, intended for a particular occasion with only a remote or vague connection with the original meaning of the word.”
“‘uprest’ (“Revolt of Islam”, 3 21 5), which has been described as a nonce-word deliberately coined by Shelley ‘on no better warrant than the exigency of the rhyme.’”
“These people are not only in prison, but as convicted child molesters occupy the lowest, most despised niche in prison society - the 'nonce'.”
“Hmm, "nonce," "chiaroscuro," and "purlieu" were the only ones I knew -- and I agree with elck that 3 out of 18 definitely equates to duncehood.”
“As I said in my post, these are "words you'll never have a use for," and I'd be outraged if someone used them on an actual vocabulary test in a school, say -- aside from "nonce" and maybe "chiaroscuro," there's no particular reason to know them.”
“Nacherally, I abandons them marital intentions for what you-all might call the "nonce" to sort o 'look over my hand ag'in an' see be I right.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nonce’.
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Collected Words - List 2
I've been saving these words FOR YEARS. Now, I've found Wordie
gasconade, zaccheus, spoor, precentor, bombazine, otiose, khamsin, bruited, viva voce, whilom, lenitive, ebullition and 244 more...
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Perponyms
List of words referent to persons who commit specific crimes, or are suspected of committing those crimes, beginning with arsonist and safecracker.
Check out reesetee's nice Bad Guys l...arsonist, safecracker, murderer, rapist, getaway man, jewel thief, accomplice, drug dealer, carjacker, gunrunner, industrial spy, human trafficker and 216 more...
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angelcatrom's list
Words I love!
defenestrate, contrafibularity, hootnanny, pingo, escadrille, perspicacious, nonce, aequeosalinocalca..., supercalifragilis..., hapax legomenon, all-a-mort, quantical and 2 more...
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Moby Dick
Words of interest from the book Moby Dick.
arrant, obstreperously, coffer-dam, farrago, rejoinder, counterpane, hamper, commend, grego, dreadnought, psalmody, expostulation and 85 more...
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salutes
hail, greet, toast, gesture, saluter, doff, gratulate, acclaim, halse, panegyric, salue, salve and 45 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, N
nurdled, naumachia, nystagmus, nephology, nigh, noctilucent, noctambulant, nocebo, neap, napiform, nacelle, node and 95 more...
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generationnext's Words
petulant, vehement, pensive, lascivious, vacillate, histrionic, satiated, svelte, lithe, zeitgeist, viscous, sommelier and 526 more...
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i heart words
autarkic, cline, aver, limn, gossamer, ochre, fulminate, twee, augur, mollify, maw, ecumenical and 113 more...
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Pale Fire
Words gathered while reading Pale Fire.
larches, torquate, stillicide, vermiculate, preterist, theolatry, iridule, vulgarian, cloutish, lemniscate, torsion, trillium and 176 more...
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Joe's list
Fissiparous Weekly Standard Nigeria a fissiparous country 3/2012
fissiparous, inchoate, punctilious, synecdoche, apocryphal, superadd, pedant, pedagogy, astigmatic, inter alia, aphoristically, eponymous and 131 more...
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A Matter Of Time
Favorite time-related words.
vespertine, twilight, gloaming, eftsoon, eventide, dawn, eos, dusk, witching hour, ephemeral, candlemark, autumnal and 122 more...
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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My Treasures
Well everyone's lists are favourites or pets or useful terms, no? These are mine.
mephitic, cagastric, wulm, scaevity, seplasiary, sevidical, sevous, soleated, soloecal, sputcheon, stagma, temerate and 173 more...
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pixistix's Words
cumquat, circumlocution, panoply, propinquity, contumely, quietus, fardel, tmesis, tipsy, giddy, trudge, vortex and 211 more...
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dann's words
just some nice words that i like.
beamish, snark, sundry, contrariwise, salsify, cephalopod, omphaloskepsis, grok, resistentialism, peristerophobia, aglet, ferrule and 125 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nonce.

Casey "But for the nonce she only stood there, biting her lower lip." From Wizard and Glass by Stephen King. Jan 11, 2011
mjt I had this meaning in mind:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonce_word Dec 8, 2009
chained_bear Oh dear. Yes it does. Oct 1, 2008
asativum Brings a whole new, unpleasant meaning to the phrase, "for the nonce". Oct 1, 2008
johnmperry British prison slang. Paedophile or any sex offender. Jun 18, 2008
bilby British slang - paedophile. Mar 19, 2008