• (RP) enPR: nŏns, IPA: /nɒns/
• (America) IPA: /nɑns/
• (Australia) IPA: /nɔns/

nonce (plural nonces)

1. The one or single occasion; the present reason or purpose (now only in for the nonce).

   That will do for the nonce, but we'll need a better answer for the long term.

   • 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXX:

     [...] Dunce, / Dotard, a-dozing at the very nonce, / After a life spent training for the sight!

   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, chapter 6, in Barchester Towers:

     'Idiot!' exclaimed the doctor, who for the nonce was not capable of more than such spasmodic attempts at utterance.

2. (lexicography) A nonce word.

   I had thought that the term was a nonce, but it seems as if it's been picked up by other authors.

3. (cryptography) A value constructed so as to be unique to a particular message in a stream, in order to prevent replay attacks.
   • 1999, Network Working Group, RFC 2617 – HTTP Authentication: Basic and Digest Access Authentication, The Internet Society, page 22:

     The information gained by the eavesdropper would permit a replay attack, but only with a request for the same document, and even that may be limited by the server's choice of nonce.

• German: einmalig, Einmal-
• Russian: данный случай

• Spanish: nonce

nonce (not comparable)

1. One-off; produced or created for a single occasion or use. Denoting something occurring once.

As prison slang also said to be an acronym for "Not On Normal Communal Exercise" (Stevens 2012), but this is likely a backronym.

nonce (plural nonces)

1. (British, Ireland, pejorative) A sex offender, especially one who is guilty of sexual offences against children. [1975]
   • 1989 "assorted nonces, ponces and murderers, 'the worst men in the world' [...] on the nonce wing, where the child-killers, molesters and various perverts have to be protected from the other prisoners." (New Statesman, New Society, Volume 2, Statesman & Nation Publishing Company Limited)
2. (by extension) A pedophile.
3. (British, Ireland, prison slang, pejorative) A police informer, one who betrays a criminal enterprise [2000]

   Synonyms: see snitch

4. (British, Ireland, slang, pejorative) A stupid or worthless person. [2002]

   Shut it, ya nonce!

• French: pointeur
• Russian: педофи́л
• Spanish: violeta