non-word

See also: nonword

English

Alternative forms

• nonword

Etymology

non- +‎ word

Noun

non-word (plural non-words)

1. Any sequence of sounds or letters which is not considered to be a word, whether through an accidental gap (for example, phextapher-styphren) or through a systematic gap (for example, fssstpklyitnbkdv).
   • 1986, Daniel G. Marowski, Contemporary Literary Criticism, page 382:

     […] trashola prose features regular dollops of sub-literate laziness (including non-words like "arousement" and "assertation").

Antonyms

• word

Hyponyms

• pseudoword

Related terms

• nonce word

Translations

non-word

• Danish: nonord n