Meaning

7 senses
  1. A nonce word.

    I had thought that the term was a nonce, but it seems as if it's been picked up by other authors.

  2. A value constructed so as to be unique to a particular message in a stream, in order to prevent replay attacks.

  3. (Ireland, UK, derogatory)A sex offender, especially one who is guilty of sexual offences against children.

    педофи́лpedofíl, растли́тельrastlítelʹ, соврати́тельsovratítelʹ

  4. (broadly)A pedophile.

  5. (Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang)A police informer, one who betrays a criminal enterprise

  6. (Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang)A stupid or worthless person.

    Shut it, ya nonce!

  7. (archaic)The one or single occasion; the present reason or purpose.

    That will do for the nonce, but we'll need a better answer for the long term.

    einmalig, Einmal-

    да́нный слу́чайdánnyj slúčaj, ока́зияokázija

    the present occasion

Examples

3 sentences
  1. I like coining nonce words.

    ruЯ люблю придумывать несуществующие слова.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · Ooneykcall · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  2. "Chortle" was a nonce word when it was first created, but now it's a regular English word.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · mollydot · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  3. He is such a nonce!

    CC BY · Tatoeba · Micsmithel · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

5 languages
Русский
By meaning 2
one or single occasion; the present reason or purpose:
sex offender, especially one who is guilty of sexual offences against children:
Deutsch
one or single occasion; the present reason or purpose:

Origin

Inherited from Middle English nonse, nones, a rebracketing of Middle English to þen anes,

Inherited from Middle English nonse, nones, a rebracketing of Middle English to þen anes, for þen anes (to/for the once (i.e., the one occasion or instance)), from the dative singular neuter of þe. The cryptography sense is commonly said to be a contraction of number used once, although this is probably incorrect.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: nonces
Singularnonce
Pluralnonces

regular

Synonyms

2 synonyms
Close in meaning

Word family

3 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
nonce — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto