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notion - 4 dictionary results
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no⋅tion

  [noh-shuhn]
Use notion in a Sentence
–noun
1. a general understanding; vague or imperfect conception or idea of something: a notion of how something should be done.
2. an opinion, view, or belief: That's his notion, not mine.
3. conception or idea: his notion of democracy.
4. a fanciful or foolish idea; whim: She had a notion to swim in the winter.
5. an ingenious article, device, or contrivance; knickknack.
6. notions, small articles, as buttons, thread, ribbon, and other personal items, esp. such items displayed together for sale, as in a department store.
Origin:
1560–70; < L nōtiōn- (s. of nōtiō) examination, idea, equiv. to nōt(us) ptp. of nōscere (see notify ) + -iōn- -ion

Related forms:
no⋅tion⋅less, adjective

Synonyms:
1, 3. See idea.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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no·tion   (nō'shən)   


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n.  
  1. A belief or opinion.
  2. A mental image or representation; an idea or conception.
  3. A fanciful impulse; a whim. See Synonyms at idea.
  4. notions Small lightweight items for household use, such as needles, buttons, and thread.

[Middle English nocioun, concept, from Latin nōtiō, nōtiōn-, from nōtus, known, past participle of nōscere, to get to know; see gnō- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Notion

No"tion\, [L. notio, fr. noscere to know: cf. F. notion. See Know.]

1. Mental apprehension of whatever may be known or imagined; an idea; a conception; more properly, a general or universal conception, as distinguishable or definable by marks or not[ae].

What hath been generally agreed on, I content myself to assume under the notion of principles. --Sir I. Newton.

Few agree in their notions about these words. --Cheyne.

That notion of hunger, cold, sound, color, thought, wish, or fear which is in the mind, is called the "idea" of hunger, cold, etc. --I. Watts.

Notion, again, signifies either the act of apprehending, signalizing, that is, the remarking or taking note of, the various notes, marks, or characters of an object which its qualities afford, or the result of that act. --Sir W. Hamilton.

2. A sentiment; an opinion.

The extravagant notion they entertain of themselves. --Addison.

A perverse will easily collects together a system of notions to justify itself in its obliquity. --J. H. Newman.

3. Sense; mind. [Obs.] --Shak.

4. An invention; an ingenious device; a knickknack; as, Yankee notions. [Colloq.]

5. Inclination; intention; disposition; as, I have a notion to do it. [Colloq.]
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : notion
Spanish: noción,
German: der Begriff,
Japanese: 理解
More Translations »

notion 
1533 (implied in notional), from L. notionem (nom. notio) "concept," from notus, pp. of noscere "come to know." Coined by Cicero as a loan-translation of Gk. ennoia "act of thinking, notion, conception," or prolepsis "previous notion, previous conception." Notions "miscellaneous articles" (1805, Amer.Eng.) springs from the idea of "clever invention."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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