notion Hear it!

notion Definition

no·tion (nō′s̸hən)

noun

    1. a mental image; general idea
    2. a vague thought
  2. a belief; opinion; view
  3. a desire; inclination; whim
  4. a plan or intention
  5. ☆ small, useful articles, as needles, thread, etc., sold in a store

Etymology: Fr < L notio < notus: see note

notion Synonyms

notion

n.

  1. Opinion

    idea, assumption, sentiment; see opinion 1, thought 2.

  2. Conception

    concept, understanding, inkling, intimation, conceit, whim, fancy, imagination, perception, impression, insight, consciousness, mental apprehension, inclination, indication, intuition, comprehension, penetration, discernment; see also awareness, knowledge 1. See syn. study at idea.

notion Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • citizenship: In Sweden, multiculturalism has meant taking a holistic look at notions of citizenship.
  • equivalence: The idea of sacrifice then has its roots in these crude notions of equivalence.
  • identity: Critically, what does this mean for the English and english notions of identity?
  • Britishness: This notion of Britishness is more important than ever in the new context of globalization.
  • objectivity: I realized that the notion of journalistic objectivity was completely redundant in a situation like that where you had to take sides.
  • rationality: Magda Osman discusses deception in terms of general notions of rationality.

Converse of object

  • preconceive: We will not go into this with ironclad, preconceived notions.
  • reject: He rejected any notion that the Red Platform is ' the problem ' in the CPGB.
  • dispel: At this point let me dispel the notion that counseling is all about Freud, couches and is only for certain types of people!
  • reinforce: The economic approach focuses purely on monetary value and may be damaging if it reinforces the notion that volunteering is all about saving money.
  • entertain: He gives Emma just enough encouragement for her to entertain the notion of becoming his assistant for a new act.
  • dismiss: From roadside glimpses so far, I'd dismissed all horror-film notions of vodou.

Adjective modifier

  • vague: For, they concede, the Church does after all bring in some kind of vague notion of God and a Supreme Being.
  • romantic: I adore old French films, and that really romantic notion of music aching and breaking hearts all over a film.
  • mistaken: People have the mistaken notion that business is sales minus costs and expenses is equal to profit.
  • ridiculous: Sergeant Wilkie replied that she thought the whole thing made her look like a boy, which was a ridiculous notion.
  • absurd: Mr Square, a sensible sort, did not believe in the absurd notion of the third dimension.
  • conventional: Opposes the conventional notion that Hardy is a pessimistic thinker.

Noun used with modifier

  • commonsense: Naive realism maintained the commonsense notion that physical objects existed independently of the senses.
  • naive: They built on kids ' naïve notions of biology in just the way that psychologists would say you should do.
notion Quotes

It gave me a great notion of the credit of our present government and administration, to find people press as eagerly to pay moneyas they would to receive it; and, at the same time, a due respect for that body of men who have found out so pleasing an expedient for carrying on the common cause, that they have turned a tax into a diversion.

—Stein, Gertrude

O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us An'foolish notion.

—Burns, Robert

   Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatsoever abysses Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.

—Huxley,T(homas) H(enry)

   We have no other notion of cause and effect, but that of certain objects, which have been always conjoined together, and whichinall past instanceshavebeenfound inseparable.

—Humboldt, Alexander, Baron von

But even Archimedes was not free from the prevailing notion that geometry was degraded by being employed to produce anything useful. It was with difficulty that he was induced to stoop from speculation to practice. He was half ashamed of those inventions which were the wonder of hostile nations, and always spoke of them slightingly as mere amusements, as trifles in which a mathematician might be suffered to relax his mind after intense application to the higher parts of his science.

—1st Baron

Word has somehow got around that the split infinitive is always wrong.That is of a piece with the outworn notion that it is always wrong to strike a lady.

—Thurber,James Grover

SoTomwent homewith Ellie†and heisnowa great man of science†and knows everything about everything, except whya hen's egg don't turn into a crocodile, and two or three other little things which no one will know till the coming of the Cocqcigrues. And all this fromwhat helearnt whenhewas awater-baby, underneaththesea. 'And of course,Tom married Ellie?'My dear child, what a silly notion! Don't you know that no one ever marries in a fairy tale, under the rank of a prince or a princess?

—Kingsley, Charles