NONCE WORD


Meaning of NONCE WORD in English

noun

: a word (as ringday in “four girls I know have become engaged today: this must be ringday”) coined and used apparently to suit one particular occasion sometimes independently by different writers or speakers but not adopted into use generally

Coleridge coined mammonolatry in 1820 as a nonce word

I still think I heard it, though so seldom that it had more or less the air of a nonce word — S.T.Byington

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.