notional
adjective
[ ˈnəʊʃ(ə)n(ə)l ]
• existing as or based on a suggestion, estimate, or theory; not existing in reality.
• "notional budgets for hospital and community health services"
Similar:
hypothetical,
theoretical,
speculative,
conjectural,
suppositional,
putative,
conceptual,
abstract,
supposed,
conjectured,
assumed,
ideal,
imaginary,
fanciful,
fancied,
unreal,
illusory,
unsubstantiated,
suppositious,
ideational,
• denoting or relating to an approach to grammar which is dependent on the definition of terminology (e.g. ‘a verb is a doing word’) as opposed to identification of structures and processes.
• (in language teaching) denoting or relating to a syllabus that aims to develop communicative competence.
Origin:
late Middle English (in the Latin sense): from obsolete French, or from medieval Latin notionalis ‘relating to an idea’, from notio(n- ) ‘idea’ (see notion).
