Nomination

How to spell nomination

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce nomination

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does nomination mean?

1. nounThe act of formally proposing someone for a position, an election, or an award, or the fact of being so proposed.

Nomination in a sentence

• Her nomination for the board seat was confirmed by a unanimous vote.

• The film received a nomination in the best screenplay category.

Where does nomination come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin nominatio, meaning 'a naming' or 'a calling by name', which was built on the verb nominare, 'to name', and ultimately on the noun nomen, simply meaning 'name'. The same nomen root surfaces in a whole family of familiar English words, including nominal, noun, and even the legal term denominate. English took the word in through Old French nominacion during the later Middle Ages, when it referred to the formal act of naming or proposing a person for an office or duty. From that early administrative sense it broadened into the modern meaning of putting someone forward for an election, an appointment, or an award. A handy memory hook is that nomination is literally about a name: keep the single m and the single n of nomen in mind, since the trap is the unstressed middle vowel rather than any doubled letter.

How the word is built

• nomin- (from Latin nomen: name)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix denoting an action or its result)