nontechnical

adjective

non·​tech·​ni·​cal ˌnän-ˈtek-ni-kəl 

: not technical: such as

a

: not related to technique or technical skills or subjects

Most of the criticism focused on nontechnical aspects of care—not whether the diagnosis or surgery was correct but on the overall experience of the patient.

—Tara Lagu

b

: not being or using technical or specialized terminology

The doctor explained the effects of the disease in nontechnical terms.

Most of the writing in this book is nontechnical, meaning that it can be understood by the 99.7 percent of the public who are trained in neither science nor engineering.

—Timothy Ferris

c

: not having or requiring technical or specialized knowledge or skills

I believe that e-books should be targeted at nontechnical users, but I can't imagine my mother-in-law reading her romance novels on one.

—Paul MacFarlane

nontechnically

ˌnän-ˈtek-ni-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

describing the problem clearly and nontechnically

Examples of nontechnical in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In addition to direct hire, OPM additionally authorized temporary excepted service appointments to bolster agencies to carry out the nontechnical work needed to support the executive order. —Sage Lazzaro, Fortune, 4 Jan. 2024

But scientists say seaweed removal is a low-cost, nontechnical method that can significantly improve reef health. —Cameron Pugh, The Christian Science Monitor, 30 Oct. 2023

The grid, through a combination of technical and nontechnical issues, loses almost half the load in delivery. —Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 22 Aug. 2023

Additionally, the vendors that supply your enterprise platforms may have reports and learning guides that help demystify their solutions for a nontechnical audience. —Beena Ammanath, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2023

These are typically nontechnical jobs requiring little interaction with colleagues and repetitive tasks like responding to emails or drafting documents from templates. —Joseph Abrams, Fortune, 25 July 2023

This creates perennial, dynamic challenges for the scientific, safety, and security communities to make substantive advances on these issues, let alone the nontechnical policymakers and public. —Saskia Popescu, STAT, 21 July 2023

Hinton is also worried about how A.I. could change the job market by rendering nontechnical jobs irrelevant. —Prarthana Prakash, Fortune, 1 May 2023

The companies which thrived understood that dividing employees between technical and nontechnical workers wasted the most radically human and readily available resource of all: talent. —Keith Ferrazzi, Forbes, 3 May 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1833, in the meaning defined above