nominal

Etymology

From the Middle English nominalle (“of nouns”), borrowed from Latin nōminālis (“of names”), from nōmen (“name”).

adj

1. Of, resembling, relating to, or consisting of a name or names.
2. Assigned to or bearing a person's name.
3. Existing in name only.
   a nominal difference
   1856 February, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Oliver Goldsmith, republished in 1865, The Miscellaneous Writings of Lord Macaulay, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green, page 300, At Edinburgh he passed eighteen months in nominal attendance on lectures, and picked up some superficial information about chemistry and natural history.
   In contrast to the traditionally conservative or libertarian ethos of the entrepreneurial class, the oligarchy is increasingly allied with the nominally populist Democratic Party and its regulatory agenda. October 5, 2013, Joel Kotkin, “California’s New Feudalism Benefits a Few at the Expense of the Multitude”, in The Daily Beast
4. (philosophy) Of or relating to nominalism.
5. Insignificantly small.
   He gave me only a nominal sum for my services.
   In the summer, DCC [Devon County Council] transferred ownership of the northern part of the station to NR for a nominal £1, enabling it (and the platform) to become part of the rail network. November 17 2021, Andrew Mourant, “Okehampton: a new dawn for Dartmoor”, in RAIL, number 944, page 43
6. Of or relating to the presumed or approximate value, rather than the actual value.
   The nominal voltage is 1.5 V, but the actual figure is usually higher.
   the nominal yield of a nuclear weapon
7. (finance) Of, relating to, or being the amount or face value of a sum of money or a stock certificate, for example, and not the purchasing power or market value.
8. (finance) Of, relating to, or being the rate of interest or return without adjustment for compounding or inflation.
9. (grammar) Of or relating to a noun or word group that functions as a noun.
   This sentence contains a nominal phrase.
10. (engineering) According to plan or design.
    We'll just do a nominal flight check.
    Apart from the slightly high temperature, all the readings from the spacecraft are nominal.
    Reactor online. Sensors online. Weapons online. All systems nominal. 1996 September, Dustin Browder, MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries, spoken by Narrator (Carole Ruggier), Activision
11. (economics) Without adjustment to remove the effects of inflation.
    My employer does not understand how low my nominal wage is.
    The nominal GNP of this country is pretty low.
    Comparisons of the costs of the Diablo Canyon plant with other nuclear power plants can be misleading because the available cost data are in nominal dollars and therefore include the toll of inflation over the construction periods. 1991, Richard J. Gilbert, Regulatory Choices: A Perspective on Developments in Energy Policy, page 267
    This simple process allows us to convert nominal dollars into inflation-adjusted real dollars. 2001, Erich A. Helfert, Financial Analysis: Tools and Techniques: A Guide for Managers, page 467
12. (statistics, of a variable) Having values whose order is insignificant.
13. (taxonomy) Of a species, the species name without consideration of whether it is a junior synonym or in reality consists of more than one biological species.
    Since then, a good deal of research has documented and concluded that the nominal species A. fraterculus actually comprises an unresolved complex of cryptic species. November 26, 2015, Mosè Manni et al., “Relevant genetic differentiation among Brazilian populations of Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera, Tephritidae)”, in ZooKeys, volume 540, →DOI

noun

1. (grammar) A noun or word group that functions as part of a noun phrase.
   This sentence contains two nominals.
2. (grammar) A part of speech that shares features with nouns and adjectives. (Depending on the language, it may comprise nouns, adjectives, possibly numerals, pronouns, and participles.)
   A considerable number of derived nominals, especially thematic nouns, also exhibited o-grade roots. 2006, Donald Ringe, From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (A Linguistic History of English; 1), Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 12
3. A number (usually natural) used like a name; a numeric code or identifier. (See nominal number on Wikipedia.)
   Numeric codes of characters used in programming are nominals.
4. (UK, police jargon) A person listed in the Police National Computer database as having been convicted, cautioned or recently arrested.