Binom
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A compound word.
"Where you would expect to hear AN na N you may instead find, especially in written Japanese, AN no N. The latter, somewhat stiffer, version appears to enjoy particular favor when the AN is a binom of Chinese origin modifying another Chinese binom and the two words are either optionally combinable into a compound noun (by dropping the copula nó/ná together with its juncture and applying the proper accentuation) or look as if they might easily so combine."
Example
More examples"Where you would expect to hear AN na N you may instead find, especially in written Japanese, AN no N. The latter, somewhat stiffer, version appears to enjoy particular favor when the AN is a binom of Chinese origin modifying another Chinese binom and the two words are either optionally combinable into a compound noun (by dropping the copula nó/ná together with its juncture and applying the proper accentuation) or look as if they might easily so combine."
Etymology
From bi- + -nom.
Related phrases
More for "binom"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.