1
as in titular
being something in name or form only
he was the nominal head of state—everyone knew the country was actually run by one of his advisers
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in slight
so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention
when you pay $400 for an airline ticket, a ticketing fee of five dollars seems nominal
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in substantive
Related Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of nominal
Elizabeth Marie Himchak, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Dec. 2025
Solar Arrays and Navigational Antennas Deployed Everything is nominal following third stage seperation, the ground control is reporting.
—Health Reporter, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Nov. 2025
The researchers modeled solar variability using a normal distribution with a mean of 80% of nominal irradiance and a standard deviation of 12% to capture seasonal and diurnal shifts.
—Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 26 Nov. 2025
As a result, Gargotta awarded nominal damages of $1.
—Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 26 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for nominal
Adjective
Train rides have a nominal cost.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for nominal
Adjective
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Though he was widely known for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 titular film, Lugosi portrayed the Creature in 1943's Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.—
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Pacino stars as the enigmatic titular figure, described as part muse, part ghost of cinema past.—
Adjective
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The ice punishes the slightest miscalculations, demands the sharpest of focus.—
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One report found there may be a slight benefit to moderate drinking, while the other concluded that even one drink a day was linked to a wide range of harms.—
Noun
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First Acts: From the symbolic to the substantive, here is a look at what nine new governors elected last year have done in their first weeks in office.—
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With his substantive, agreeably granular bass, David Grogan gave prophetic warnings real authority.—
Adjective
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Assuming every one of these boats was packed with the drugs usually transported on these routes, the impact of these strikes on the drugs available on our streets was negligible.—
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What it’s gotten has been a negligible return on investment.—
Adjective
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At the previous World Cup in 2022, hosted by tiny Qatar, all of England’s games were in Doha or just outside that city.—
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Nanotubes are ultra-small cylindrical structures, so tiny that thousands could fit across the width of a human hair.—
Adjective
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Angel went for a respectful middle-of-the-road jab — complimenting her parenting and resilience, but maligning her for being petty.—
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Who is not petty or vindictive.—
Cite this Entry
“Nominal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nominal. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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