English

Pronunciation

• enPR: nŏns, IPA^(key): /nɒns/
  • (UK) IPA^(key): [nɒn(t)s]
  • (US) IPA^(key): [nɑn(t)s]
• Rhymes: -ɒns

Noun

nonce ‎(plural nonces)

1. The one or single occasion; the present reason or purpose (now only in for the nonce).

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

   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, chapter 6:

     'Idiot!' exclaimed the doctor, who for the nonce was not capable of more than such spasmodic attempts at utterance.

2. (lexicography) 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.

Translations

Adjective

nonce ‎(not comparable)

1. denoting something occurring once.

Derived terms

• for the nonce
• nonce word
• nonce borrowing

Etymology 2

Unknown. UK criminal slang. Possibly originally from dialectal nonce, nonse ‎(“stupid, worthless individual”), or Nance, nance ‎(“effeminate man”), from Nancy boy.

See Wikipedia article for further discussion.

Noun

nonce ‎(plural nonces)

1. (Britain, slang, pejorative) A sex offender, especially of children.

   That bloke who lives at number 53 is a nonce!

2. (Britain, slang) A stupid or worthless person.

   Shut it, ya nonce!

Translations

Etymology 3

Contraction of number used once.

Noun

nonce ‎(plural nonces)

1. (cryptography) A value constructed so as to be unique to a particular message in a stream, in order to prevent replay attacks.

   In this protocol we use the serial number of the message as a nonce.

   • 1999, Network Working Group, RFC 2617 – HTTP Authentication: Basic and Digest Access Authentication, The Internet Society, page 22,

     The information gained by the eavesdropper would permit a replay attack, but only with a request for the same document, and even that may be limited by the server's choice of nonce.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɔ̃s/

Noun

nonce m ‎(plural nonces)

1. nuncio

Anagrams

• conne