Adjective

(-)

Of, resembling, relating to, or consisting of a name or names.

Assigned to or bearing a person's name.

Existing in name only.

a nominal difference

* (rfdate)

Nominal attendance on lectures.

(philosophy) Of or relating to nominalism.

(senseid) Insignificantly small; trifling.

He gave me only a nominal sum for my services.

Of or relating to the presumed or approximate value, rather than the actual value.

The nominal voltage is 1.5 V, but the actual figure is usually higher.

(finance) Of, relating to, or being the amount or face value of a sum of money or a stock certificate, for example, and not the purchasing power or market value.

(finance) Of, relating to, or being the rate of interest or return without adjustment for compounding or inflation.

(grammar) Of or relating to a noun or word group that functions as a noun.

This sentence contains a nominal phrase.

(engineering) According to plan or design; normal.

We'll just do a nominal flight check.

Apart from the slightly high temperature, all the readings from the spacecraft are nominal .

(economics) Without adjustment to remove the effects of inflation; contrasted with real.

My employer does not understand how low my nominal wage is.

The nominal GNP of this country is pretty low.

* 1991 , Richard J. Gilbert, Regulatory Choices: A Perspective on Developments in Energy Policy , page 267,

Comparisons of the costs of the Diablo Canyon plant with other nuclear power plants can be misleading because the available cost data are in nominal dollars and therefore include the toll of inflation over the construction periods.

* 2001 , Erich A. Helfert, Financial Analysis: Tools and Techniques: A Guide for Managers , page 467,

This simple process allows us to convert nominal dollars into inflation-adjusted real dollars.

(statistics, of a variable) Having values whose order is insignificant.

Adjective

(er)

Having little flesh; lean; thin.

Poor, deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent; paltry; scanty; inadequate; unsatisfying.

A meager piece of cake in one bite.

* {{quote-book

, year=1607 , author=Thomas Walkington , title=The Optick Glasse of Humors, or, The touchstone of a golden temperature, or ... , page=54 citation , passage=...that begets many ugly and deformed phantasies in the braine, which being also hot and drie in the second extenuates and makes meager the body extraordinarily, ...}}

* {{quote-book

, year=1637 , author=William Shakespeare , title=The most excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice: With the extreame crueltie of Shylocke ... , page=E5 citation , passage=Nor none of thee thou pale and common drudge tween man and man: but thou, thou meager lead which rather threatnest then dost promise ought...}}