Nominally

How to spell nominally

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce nominally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does nominally mean?

1. adverbIn name or theory but not necessarily in reality or practice.

Nominally in a sentence

• He is nominally in charge, though his deputy makes every real decision.

• The fee is nominally free, but hidden charges appear on the final bill.

Where does nominally come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun nomen, which simply meant 'name'. From that root Latin built the adjective nominalis, meaning 'of or relating to a name', and English borrowed 'nominal' through this Latin line during the 1400s and 1500s. The adverb 'nominally' adds the ordinary English -ly ending, and it carries the sense 'in name only', describing something that is true on paper but not really in practice. The very same nomen root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'name', 'noun', 'nominate', and 'denomination', all of which involve naming or labelling. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the unstressed syllable swallows its vowel, so writers must remember the double letters of -ally rather than a single l.

How the word is built

• nomin- (from Latin nomen: name)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)