Nomenclature

How to spell nomenclature

12 letters · 4 syllables

8 of the 22 people asked to spell nomenclature in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

How to pronounce nomenclature

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does nomenclature mean?

1. nounThe system of names or terms used in a particular field, discipline, or activity.

Nomenclature in a sentence

• The new lab manual standardised the nomenclature for every chemical compound.

• Botanists rely on a strict nomenclature so the same plant has one accepted name worldwide.

Where does nomenclature come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin nomenclatura, which meant the assigning or listing of names. It was built from nomen, meaning 'name', and the verb calare, meaning 'to call out' or 'to proclaim', so the underlying idea is literally 'name-calling' in the formal sense of announcing names. In ancient Rome a nomenclator was a slave or attendant whose job was to whisper to a politician the names of citizens he met, so the great man could greet voters as if he remembered them all. English borrowed the term in the early 1600s, partly through French, first for a system of naming and later for the specialised vocabulary of a science or trade. The trap in spelling is that the middle is 'nomen', the Latin word for name, not 'nomin', and that the cluster '-clature' carries the calare root rather than the 'clatter' it sounds like.

How the word is built

• nomen (name)
• -clature (from Latin calare: to call out, proclaim)