Non-word

Quick meaning: Non-word is a noun meaning (linguistics) Any sequence of sounds or letters which is not considered to be a word, whether through an accidental gap (for example, phextapher-styphren) or through a systematic gap (for example, fssstpklyitnbkdv).

Meaning

(linguistics) Any sequence of sounds or letters which is not considered to be a word, whether through an accidental gap (for example, phextapher-styphren) or through a systematic gap (for example, fssstpklyitnbkdv).

More Meanings

1. (informal) Any term that is not among the words of a language as those have often traditionally been defined by nonlinguists (for example, having syllables, and having come from centuries-old predecessor words): thus, an abbreviation, acronym, initialism, alphanumeric symbol, number written in digits (Arabic numerals 0 to 9), or logographic symbol.

Example Sentences

This linguistics textbook, like many others, precedes nonwords with an asterisk; for example, *narbletome.

[…] trashola prose features regular dollops of sub-literate laziness (including non-words like "arousement" and "assertation").

In their glossary, they were using a convention where the words were in blue font and the abbreviations and other nonwords were in purple font.

Word Forms

• non-words
• nonword

Antonyms for non-word

Common opposites include word.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include nonword, nonaffricate, nonfricative, nonvowel, nonname, nonsonorant.

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