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  1. nonce word love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A word occurring, invented, or used just for a particular occasion; for example, the word mileconsuming in "the wagon beginning to fall into its slow and mileconsuming clatter” ( William Faulkner).

Wiktionary

  1. n. lexicography A word invented for the occasion.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. “a word apparently employed only for the nonce”.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a word with a special meaning used for a special occasion

Etymologies

  1. From for the nonce, and word. (Wiktionary)

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hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. word

reverse dictionary (5)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. varletaille
  1. leucocholy
  1. Rainer
  1. nonce word
  1. nonce-word

tagging (1)

Words tagged ‘nonce word’

  1. fidimplicitary

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Lists

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  • Jesterpatch I put verbal inventions into my two blogs whenever inspiration comes noncing. In the family blog, I described my new hobby of piling rocks on rocks into animal and human forms by instantiating the term "gerp":

    "Quaker Hill's rocky terrain became fertile soil (so to speak) for my current hobby, which could aptly be called, "Rockery." But starting around 1835, the word began answering to the definition, "rock garden," and I don't do rock gardens. So I created a nonce word for the craft: " Gravity-enabled Rock Placements," which, as an acronym, struts into the upper case to become GERPs, and then, sans pomp, settles down to earth into the lower-case to become the neologism "gerps"

    Addenda: multiple gerps in close proximity are known in the informal as "gerp groups" and in the formal as "rockcolonies." Sep 29, 2007

  • Jesterpatch I put verbal inventions into my two blogs whenever inspiration comes noncing. In the family blog, I described my new hobby of piling rocks on rocks into animal and human forms by instantiating the term "gerp":

    "Quaker Hill's rocky terrain became fertile soil (so to speak) for my current hobby, which could aptly be called, "rockery." But starting around 1835, the word began answering to the definition, "rock garden," and I don't do rock gardens. So I created a nonce word for the craft: " Gravity-enabled Rock Placements," which, as an acronym, struts into the upper case to become GERPs, and then, sans pomp, settles down to earth into the lower-case to become the neologism "gerps"

    Addenda: multiple gerps in close proximity are known in the informal as "gerp groups" and in the formal as "rockcolonies." Sep 29, 2007

  • reesetee A word occurring, invented, or used just for a particular occasion (although some have gone on to lead rather long lives). Sep 28, 2007

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‘nonce word’ has been looked up 2171 times, loved by 2 people, added to 13 lists, commented on 3 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.