Meanings
- alternativenot comparableAlternative form of non-verbal.
Negative prefix in Russian is a distinctive feature of nonverbal parts of speech, namely, nouns (even those that do not denote situations, e.g. 3a), adjectives (3b), and adverbs (3c): […]
2009, Anna Pazelskaya, “Three Kinds of Event Nominal Negation in Russian”, in Peter Bosch, David Gabelaia, Jérôme Lang, editors, Logic, Language, and Computation: 7th International Tbilisi Symposium, Springer, →ISBN, page 251 more example
In the Moroccan dialect of Meknès, verbal negation is by means of the circumfix ma...-š, as in (15), while nonverbal negation is primarily by means of invariable ma-ši before the nonverbal predicate, as in (16).
1991, Bernard Comrie, “On the Importance of Arabic to General Linguistic Theory”, in Bernard Comrie, Mushira Eid, editors, Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics III: Papers from the Third Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics, John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 15
plural nonverbals
- alternativeAlternative form of non-verbal.
So obviously when we think about nonverbal behavior, or body language -- but we call it nonverbals as social scientists -- it's language, so we think about communication. When we think about communication, we think about interactions.
2012 June 28, Amy Cuddy, “Your body language may shape who you are”, in TED
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivebeing other than verbal communication
adjectivelacking verbal skill
adjectiveinvolving little use of language
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*né
- Proto-Germanic*ne
- Proto-Indo-European*ís?
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁óynos
- Proto-Germanic*ainaz
- Proto-Germanic*nainaz
- Proto-West Germanic*nain
- Old Englishnān
- Middle Englishnon
- Old Englishnān
- Old Englishnān-
- Middle Englishnon-
- Englishnon-
- Englishverbal
- Englishnonverbal
Cite this entry
nonverbal. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nonverbal
“nonverbal.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nonverbal. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nonverbal,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nonverbal.
Source: nonverbal on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.