notion
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈnəʊʃən/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈnoʊʃən/
Noun

notion (plural notions)

  1. Mental apprehension of whatever may be known, thought, or imagined; idea, concept.
    • What hath been generally agreed on, I content myself to assume under the notion of principles.
    • Few agree in their notions about these words.
    • That notion of hunger, cold, sound, color, thought, wish, or fear which is in the mind, is called the "idea" of hunger, cold, etc.
    • Notion, again, signifies either the act of apprehending, signalizing, that is, the remarking or taking note of, the various notes, marks, or characters of an object which its qualities afford, or the result of that act.
  2. A sentiment; an opinion.
    • April 2 1715, Joseph Addison, The Freeloader No. 30
      The extravagant notion they entertain of themselves.
    • A perverse will easily collects together a system of notions to justify itself in its obliquity.
  3. (obsolete) Sense; mind.
    • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene i], page 140 ↗:
      Who wrought with them, and all things else that might / To half a soul and to a notion crazed / Say, 'Thus did Banquo.'
  4. (colloquial) An invention; an ingenious device; a knickknack.
    Yankee notions
  5. Any small article used in sewing and haberdashery, either for attachment to garments or as a tool, such as a button, zipper, or thimble.
  6. (colloquial) Inclination; intention; disposition.
    I have a notion to do it.
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