The adjective nominal (ultimately from Latin nōmen, "name") generally relates to the concept of names, and often to the difference between what something is in name (ideally or theoretically) and what it's in reality. Thus it may refer to: Real versus nominal value in engineering - a value that's used as the name for an actual value which is close but not exactly the same. Real versus nominal value (economics), the "face value" of currency, which isn't corrected for inflation or compound i… (More on Nominal)