Nominal

Definition

In the context of economics and finance, when measuring money, the term nominal is used when the money measurement is given in a fixed currency unit, possibly across different periods of time, without adjusting for inflation.

For instance, if we say that the nominal wage of a worker in 2010 was twice her nominal wage in 2000, this means that, in the currency in which the worker is paid, the amount she was paid in 2010 was twice the amount she was paid in 2000. However, the real wage in 2010 may be less than twice the real wage in 2000 if there has been inflation of the currency in which the worker was paid.