Skip to main content

ambiguity - The many meanings of "nominal"


I work in software in a technology field, and hear the word nominal tossed around quite a bit. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding which meaning people are intending. Maybe I have a mental block, but this word really gets me. For example, Dictionary.com gives as many as ten definitions!



adjective




  1. being such in name only; so-called; putative: a nominal treaty; the nominal head of the country.




  2. (of a price, consideration, etc.) named as a mere matter of form, being trifling in comparison with the actual value; minimal.




  3. of, relating to, or constituting a name or names.




  4. Grammar. of, relating to, or producing a noun or nouns: a nominal suffix. functioning as or like a noun.




  5. assigned to a person by name: nominal shares of stock.




  6. containing, bearing, or giving a name or names.




  7. (of money, income, or the like) measured in an amount rather than in real value: Nominal wages have risen 50 percent, but real wages are down because of inflation.




  8. Aerospace. performing or achieved within expected, acceptable limits; normal and satisfactory: The mission was nominal throughout.




  9. Slang. done smoothly as expected: The space shot was nominal, proceeding without a hitch.




noun



  1. Grammar. a word or group of words functioning as a noun.



The usage I'm seeing it in right now is “When the system enters this mode, these portions of it are active and power consumption is nominal.”


I think the author intended meaning #8 or possibly meaning #2. I'm leaning towards #8.


I can't just ask the author of the paper which meaning they meant, so which would it be?


In the future when I hear someone use the word nominal, I intend to pull out my list of synonyms and ask them which one they mean (if any!).




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more