Word.ws English Dictionary

nonstyle

nonstyle noun: that which is not a style; lack of style.

Noun

nonstyle (countable and uncountable, plural nonstyles)

  1. That which is not a style; lack of style.
    • Despite the findings of recent critics, who have taken issue with the word, disputing its appropriateness to realism, this perception of the characteristic style of realism as a nonstyle has nevertheless been hard to dislodge.1995, Lilian R. Furst, All Is True: The Claims and Strategies of Realist Fiction, page 147
    • Dada and Surrealism and other nonstyles1999, Amelia Jones, Andrew Stephenson, Performing the body/performing the text, page 144

Examples of nonstyle in a sentence

  • His nonstyle is painfully evident when he is less than inspired: the "Faust" overture: empty bombast; the Wesendonck-Lieder: empty sentimentality.2002, John Hargraves, Music in the works of Broch, Mann, and Kafka, page 52:
  • A laissez-faire style, characterized by passive indifference about the task and subordinates, is essentially a nonstyle.2008, Montgomery Van Wart, Leadership in Public Organizations: An Introduction, page 274:
  • The novel reveals its contradictory theory of representation when the narrator, describing the young Evadne's notebook, praises its style as a nonstyle[…]2012, Zarena Aslami, The Dream Life of Citizens, page 141:

Forms of nonstyle

pluralnonstyles

Origin of nonstyle

From non- + style.

Questions about nonstyle

What does nonstyle mean?
Nonstyle means that which is not a style; lack of style.
How do you use nonstyle in a sentence?
His nonstyle is painfully evident when he is less than inspired: the "Faust" overture: empty bombast; the Wesendonck-Lieder: empty sentimentality.
What part of speech is nonstyle?
Nonstyle is a noun.
What is the plural of nonstyle?
The plural of nonstyle is nonstyles.

Words near nonstyle in the dictionary

  1. nonstudying
  2. nonstupid
  3. nonstutterer
  4. nonstutterers
  5. nonstuttering
  6. nonstyle
  7. nonstyles
  8. nonstylistic
  9. nonstylized
  10. nonsubcultural
  11. nonsubdivided

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nonstyle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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