Nonstandard

//nɑnˈstændɚd// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1
Something that is not standard.
"Unlike the TV standard we are all accustomed to, the Web is the wild, wild West of video nonstandards."

Adjective

1
Not standard.
2
Not conforming to the standard variety, or to the language as used by the majority of its speakers.
"The resulting sequence of covert wh-pronoun + Complementiser has an overt counterpart in nonstandard varieties of English, as the following example (recorded from a BBC radio programme) illustrates: (91) England put themselves in a position [whereby that they took a lot of credit for tonightʼs game] (Ron Greenwood, BBC radio 4)"

Adjective

1
not standard; not accepted as a model of excellence wordnet
2
varying from or not adhering to a standard wordnet
3
not conforming to the language usage of a prestige group within a community wordnet

Synonyms

aberrant alien bad booky capricious changeable

Antonyms

normal regular standard valid

Example

"This pronunciation is nonstandard."

Etymology

From non- + standard.

Related phrases

nonstandard analysis nonstandard appreciable nonstandard dialect nonstandard item nonstandard method nonstandard number nonstandard unit nonstandard variety

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.