Wordfinder

Nonce definition

nŏns
(UK, slang, pejorative) A sex offender, especially of children; a paedophile.

That bloke who lives at number 53 is a nonce!

noun
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(UK, slang) A stupid or worthless person.
noun
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1
The present use, occasion, or time; time being.
noun
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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.

noun
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Denoting something occurring once.
adjective
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(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.

noun
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(computing) A number, usually generated randomly or from the time, used once in a cryptographic protocol, to prevent replay attacks.
noun
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(cryptography) A datum 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.

noun
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(cryptography) In a security engineering context, a value used only once.
noun
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(Number ONCE) An arbitrary number that is generated to provide a unique identification or for security purposes such as when logging in to a network (see initialization vector). The nonce is used only once and not repeated. Although random and pseudo-random numbers theoretically produce unique numbers, there is the possibility that the same number can be generated more than once. However, if a very large, true random number is used, the chances are extremely small. A perfect nonce is the time of day; for example, 12.53 seconds past 5:13pm on 1/18/2012 can only occur once.Pronounced like the "nons" in "nonsense," nonce is actually an English word that means "for the present occasion or time."
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The present or particular occasion.
noun
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Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
nonce
Plural:
nonces

Origin of nonce

  • From Middle English for the nones for the occasion alteration of for then anes for for for then neuter dative sing. of the the1 ones, anes once once

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Unknown - UK criminal slang. Possibly originally from dialectical nonce, nonse (“stupid, worthless individual"), or Nance, nance (“effeminate man"), from Nancy boy.

    From Wiktionary

  • From a misdivision in Middle English of þan anes (“the one (occasion, instance)").

    From Wiktionary

  • See Wikipedia article for further discussion.

    From Wiktionary

  • Contraction of number used once

    From Wiktionary