nonce
Pronunciation: /nɒns/
The English word “nonce” has 8 meanings listed here.
noun
- The one or single occasion; the present reason or purpose.
- A nonce word.
- A value constructed so as to be unique to a particular message in a stream, in order to prevent replay attacks.
- A sex offender, especially one who is guilty of sexual offences against children.
- A pedophile.
- A police informer, one who betrays a criminal enterprise
- A stupid or worthless person.
adjective
Etymology
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.
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More English words
- noncavitary
- noncavitated
- noncavitating
- noncavitational
- nonce word
- noncelebration
- noncelebratory
- noncelebrity
About this dictionary
The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.
Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.