| Library / English Dictionary |
NONSENSE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Ornamental objects of no great value
Synonyms:
falderol; folderal; frill; gimcrack; gimcrackery; nonsense; trumpery
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("nonsense" is a kind of...):
decoration; ornament; ornamentation (something used to beautify)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A message that seems to convey no meaning
Synonyms:
bunk; hokum; meaninglessness; nonsense; nonsensicality
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("nonsense" is a kind of...):
content; message; subject matter; substance (what a communication that is about something is about)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "nonsense"):
absurdity; absurdness; ridiculousness (a message whose content is at variance with reason)
amphigory; nonsense verse (nonsensical writing (usually verse))
balderdash; fiddle-faddle; piffle (trivial nonsense)
buzzword; cant (stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless repetition)
cobblers (nonsense)
crock (nonsense; foolish talk)
fa la; fal la (meaningless syllables in the refrain of a partsong)
gibber; gibberish (unintelligible talking)
incoherence; incoherency; unintelligibility (nonsense that is simply incoherent and unintelligible)
jabberwocky (nonsensical language (according to Lewis Carroll))
flummery; mummery (meaningless ceremonies and flattery)
empty talk; empty words; hot air; palaver; rhetoric (loud and confused and empty talk)
rigamarole; rigmarole (a set of confused and meaningless statements)
schmegegge; shmegegge ((Yiddish) baloney; hot air; nonsense)
hooey; poppycock; stuff; stuff and nonsense (senseless talk)
baloney; bilgewater; boloney; bosh; drool; humbug; taradiddle; tarradiddle; tommyrot; tosh; twaddle (pretentious or silly talk or writing)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having no intelligible meaning
Example:
a nonsensical jumble of words
Synonyms:
nonsense; nonsensical
Classified under:
Similar:
meaningless; nonmeaningful (having no meaning or direction or purpose)
Context examples:
What nonsense! said she; if he can make an emperor, he can make a pope: go and try him.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Missense, nonsense, and frameshift mutations in the gene are associated with ornithine carbamoyltransferase deficiency.
(OTC wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)
A missense non-synonymous SNP results in an amino acid change in the protein product due to a codon change, while a nonsense non-synonymous SNP results in a termination codon.
(Non-synonymous Coding SNP, NCI Thesaurus)
There was certainly no harm in his travelling sixteen miles twice over on such an errand; but there was an air of foppery and nonsense in it which she could not approve.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
This protein is involved in both translation initiation and nonsense mediated mRNA decay.
(Eukaryotic Translation Initiation Factor 3 Subunit E, NCI Thesaurus)
A measure of linguistic development based on a person's ability to accurately repeat nonsense words.
(Non-word Repetition, NCI Thesaurus)
“Have you,” he said, “really spent your time in studying such nonsense?” I replied in the affirmative.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
“Bosh and nonsense!” he exclaimed impatiently.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
"Now, look here, Marian, this is nothing but nonsense," Martin began; then abruptly changed his mind.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
I admire your little establishment exceedingly; and as soon as I am gone, you will empty your head of all this nonsense of acting, and sit comfortably down to your table.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
