notional

adjective no·tion·al \ ˈnō-shnəl , -shə-nᵊl \

Updated on: 20 Apr 2018

Definition of notional

1 : theoretical, speculative

2 : existing in the mind only : imaginary

3 : given to foolish or fanciful moods or ideas

4 a : of, relating to, or being a notion or idea : conceptual

b (1) : presenting an idea of a thing, action, or quality

has is notional in he has luck, relational in he has gone

(2) : of or representing what exists or occurs in the world of things as distinguished from syntactic categories

—

notionality

play \ˌnō-shə-ˈna-lə-tē\ noun

—

notionally

play \ˈnō-shnə-lē, -shə-nᵊl-ē\ adverb

See notional defined for English-language learners

Examples of notional in a Sentence

The notional earnings of the company were close to the actual ones.
she has a notional understanding of romantic love but no actual experience of being in love

Recent Examples of notional from the Web

The notional dollar value rose even faster -- at a rate of 200 percent -- to about $8.24 billion last year, the bank said.

— Bloomberg.com, "Powell: U.S. Federal Budget Is Not on a Sustainable Path," 6 Apr. 2018
The notional dollar value rose even faster -- at a rate of 200 percent -- to about $8.24 billion last year, the bank said.

— heesu lee and stephen stapczynski, Houston Chronicle, "If trade war escalates, will China target U.S. shale?," 6 Apr. 2018
The Waymo settlement, paid out in Uber shares, valued the company at a notional $72 billion.

— carolyn said, San Francisco Chronicle, "Waymo starts to eclipse Uber in race to self-driving taxis," 30 Mar. 2018
Last September Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, announced plans to extend the notional minimum to one year.

— The Economist, "A growing share of offenders have dozens of crimes to their name," 22 Mar. 2018
There’s still a good chance that Democrats can force a bad DACA deal, given that the GOP is divided on immigration and President Trump might be tempted to sign up for anything as long as there’s notional funding for a wall.

— rich lowry, National Review, "The Limits of the Resistance," 23 Jan. 2018
In practice the stipulations are so stringent that waivers are mostly notional.

— the editorial board, WSJ, "More Freedom for More Money," 18 Oct. 2017
The notional value of contracts traded in the first eight hours totaled about $40 million.

— Time, "Bitcoin Futures Are Wall Street's New Big Thing — And They're Up 26%," 11 Dec. 2017
Note: Initial margin is given as a percentage of notional value, using the Dec. 5 settlement price for the front-month contract.

— alexander osipovich, WSJ, "Bitcoin Futures Promise Wild Ride for Risk-Loving Traders," 8 Dec. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'notional.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.