Nonce

/nɒns/ · noun

Meaning

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

Definitions by Sense

1. (archaic, now only in for the nonce) The one or single occasion; the present reason or purpose.
2. (lexicography) A nonce word.
3. (cryptography) A value constructed so as to be unique to a particular message in a stream, in order to prevent replay attacks.
4. One-off; produced or created for a single occasion or use. Denoting something occurring once.
5. (British, Ireland, derogatory) A sex offender, especially one who is guilty of sexual offences against children.
6. (by extension) A pedophile.
7. (British, Ireland, prison slang, derogatory) A police informer, one who betrays a criminal enterprise
8. (British, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A stupid or worthless person.

Example Sentences

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

[...] Dunce, / Dotard, a-dozing at the very nonce, / After a life spent training for the sight!

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

I had thought that the term was a nonce, but it seems as if it's been picked up by other authors.

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.

The protocol opens with A communicating in clear to AS his own claimed identity and the identity of the desired correspondent, B, together with A's nonce identifier for this transaction, I_(A1). ("Nonce" means "used only once.")

Both CCM and GCM require a unique nonce (N used once) value to maintain their privacy and authenticity goals.

The main idea with the challenge-response type of authentication protocol is that the challenge sent by the server is used only once (referred to as a cryptographic nonce, which means “number used once”).

Synonyms for nonce

Antonyms for nonce

Related Words

Word Forms

• nonces

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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