Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun plural The ninth day before the ides of a month; in the ancient Roman calendar, the seventh day of March, May, July, or October and the fifth day of the other months.
  • noun plural The fifth of the seven canonical hours. No longer in liturgical use.
  • noun plural The time of day appointed for this service, usually the ninth hour after sunrise.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See nonce.
  • In the Roman calendar, the ninth day before the ides, both days included: being in March, May, July, and October the 7th day of the month, and in the other months the 5th. See ides.
  • In the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, in religious houses, and as a devotional office in the Anglican Church, the office of the ninth hour, originally said at the ninth hour of the day (about 3 p. m.), or between midday and that hour. See canonical hours, under canonical.
  • The ninth hour after sunrise; about three o'clock in the afternoon; the hour of dinner.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun plural (Roman Calendar) The fifth day of the months January, February, April, June, August, September, November, and December, and the seventh day of March, May, July, and October. The nones were nine days before the ides, reckoning inclusively, according to the Roman method.
  • noun plural The canonical office, being a part of the Breviary, recited at noon (formerly at the ninth hour, 3 p. m.) in the Roman Catholic Church.
  • noun plural obsolete The hour of dinner; the noonday meal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun In the Roman calendar the eighth day (ninth counting inclusively) before the ides of a month.
  • noun Midday, or the meal eaten at midday.
  • noun The liturgy said at midday.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the fifth of the seven canonical hours; about 3 p.m.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin nōnae, feminine pl. of nōnus, ninth; see newn̥ in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin nonus ("ninth").

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Examples

  • One of the biggest errors made by observers of the rise of religious "nones" is mistaking the religiously unaffiliated for secularists.

    Millennials do faith and politics their way 2010

  • The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey found that those who claimed "no religion" -- popularly known as the "nones" -- were the only demographic group that grew in every state within the last 18 years, according to researchers at Trinity College.

    Blacks, Mirroring Larger U.S. Trend, 'Come Out' As Nonbelievers 2010

  • Rich went on with a chancier comment on how seriously to take the polls, which show that "nones"--people with no religious attachment or interest--is a fast-growing camp in America.

    Martin Marty on the `decline of the culture wars' | RELIGION Blog | dallasnews.com 2009

  • Aris reveal that the "nones" - people whose stated religious affiliation is "none" - have grown from 8.1% in 1990, the first year the study was conducted, to 15% in 2008.

    The Guardian World News Holly Welker 2011

  • Keysar said Wyoming's percentage of "nones" - no stated religious preference, atheist or agnostic - is noteworthy because the rate of increase outpaced the rest of the Rocky Mountain region.

    billingsgazette.com 2009

  • The group that researchers call the "nones" - atheists, agnostics and other secularists-have almost doubled in that time period, from 8.2 percent to 15 percent.

    unknown title 2009

  • The group that researchers call the "nones" - atheists, agnostics and other secularists-have almost doubled in that time period, from 8.2 percent to 15 percent.

    unknown title 2009

  • Stable nones, that is, people who report in both years that they have no religious affiliation, are, in fact, much less religious in their beliefs and values than liminals, though few of them are self-described atheists or agnostics.

    American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

  • And indeed, I think one of the things that we've discovered in our work, which this is a - the book "American Grace," that David Campbell and I have written, is a big book, and it covers a lot of topics, but one of the topics that we talk about is the so-called rise of the young nones, that is young people over the last - that's N-O-N-E-S, not N-U-N.

    The Role Of Religion In The Voting Booth 2010

  • And indeed, I think one of the things that we've discovered in our work, which this is the the book "American Grace," that David Campbell and I have written, is a big book, and it covers a lot of topics, but one of the topics that we talk about is the so-called rise of the young nones, that is young people over the last that's N-O-N-E-S, not N-U-N.

    The Role Of Religion In The Voting Booth 2010

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