nonword
Americannoun
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a word that is not recognized or accepted as legitimate, as one produced by a spelling or typographical error.
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a word whose meaning or use is not approved in a given circumstance.
“Failure” is a nonword in her vocabulary.
Etymology
Origin of nonword
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The other major challenge in gymnastics music is to reproduce pop hits without their lyrics—though nonword vocals are allowed, which is why we get our double-doubles accompanied by a lot of tonal baby babbling.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2016
Scores of >0 mean that the tetragram is a word, scores of <0 mean that the tetragram is a nonword, and scores of 0 were randomly assigned to word or nonword.
From Science Magazine ● Sep. 6, 2012
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