Faith Salie

I've always wanted, notionally, to be a mother. And I was certain I would be, because everyone I know, gay or straight, married or single, rich or not so much, who truly wants to have a child figures out a way, some way, to have one - whether through adoption, fostering, surrogacy, fertility, accident, or persistence.

American Journalist

Tom Stoppard

The notion that the 'leader' has the right to ask huge sacrifices of your generation for a notional future paradise - if you'd be good enough to lie down under the wheels of the juggernaut - that sentimental and self-aggrandising rationalisation for brute force and cowardice I felt from adolescence was wrong.

English Dramatist

Luke Harding

Notionally a left-wing movement, the Anti-Germans were born after the collapse of the Berlin wall. While most Germans rejoiced at the end of the Cold War, the Anti-Germans feared that a united Germany might lead to a fourth Reich - and a return of anti-Semitism.

British Journalist

Ta-Nehisi Coates

To Trump, whiteness is neither notional nor symbolic but the very core of his power. In this, Trump is not singular. But whereas his forebears carried whiteness like an ancestral talisman, Trump cracked the glowing amulet open, releasing its eldritch energies.

John Wesley

I know that I had not faith, unless the faith of a devil, the faith of Judas, that speculative, notional, airy shadow, which lives in the head, not in the heart. But what is this to the living, justifying faith, the faith that cleanses from sin?

English Clergyman

Chanda Kochhar

Mark-to-market losses are not real loss. It's a notional loss. What we can monitor is the credit quality of the underlying papers. Are the companies paying interest on time? Is there any deterioration in the credit quality of these companies?

Indian Businesswoman

Ben Elton

The earth only has so much bounty to offer and inventing ever larger and more notional prices for that bounty does not change its real value.

British Comedian

Simon Beaufoy

There isn't a more important issue in the world than global warming. Even the Cold War and the Bay of Pigs crisis were a notional threat.

British Writer

Mark-to-market losses are not real loss. It's a notional loss.

Use 'notional' for ideas that exist mainly in the mind, without real-world results.

In Theory

'Notional' often describes overly optimistic situations or numbers not yet realized.

Optimistic Scenarios

When comparing 'notional' and 'actual', we contrast what's theoretical vs. what's actual.

Contrast with Actual

Use 'notional' for plans or designs that haven't been put into action.

Unrealized Plans

'Notional' indicates something is still at the conceptual or abstract stage.

Abstract Concepts

When 'notional' relates to measurement, it's about quantity, not quality.

Measure of Quantity

'Notional' values are often rough estimates rather than precise measurements.

Estimations Involved

In finance, 'notional' refers to values used in calculations, like in derivatives trading.