NOMIC

Definitions: NOMIC

NOMIC

Adjective

1. Customary; ordinary; -- applied to the usual English spelling, in distinction from strictly phonetic methods.

Noun

1. Nomic spelling.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Etymology: Nomic \Nom"ic\, adjective. [from Greek expression, from a law, custom.]. (Websters 1913)

Domain	Definitions
Mathematics	If all arrays have the same skewness they are said to be homoclitic; if not, heteroclitic; Pearson also defined a heteroclitic system as nomic or anomic according as the skewness changes continuously or irregularly with the position of the array. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Nomic is a game that can be played in person or over the Internet in which the rules of the game are subject to change based on player's actions. Usually, at least initially, the rules are changed by democratic voting. "Nomic" actually refers to a large number of games based on the initial ruleset laid out by Peter Suber in his book The Paradox of Self-Amendment. The game is in some ways modeled on modern government systems, and demonstrates that any rule-changing system can get into a situation in which the laws are contradictory or insufficient to determine what is legal.

Although the victory condition in Suber's initial ruleset is the accumulation of 100 points by the roll of a die, players can change the rules to such a degree that points can become irrelevant in favor of a true currency, or make victory an unimportant concern. Any loophole in the ruleset, however, may allow the first player to discover it the chance to pull a "scam" and modify the rules to win the game. Complicating this process is the fact that Suber's initial ruleset allows for the appointment of Judges to preside over issues of rule interpretation.

The above paragraph refers to Peter Suber's initial ruleset specifically because not only does almost every aspect of the rules get changed in some way over the course of a game of Nomic, but also myriads of variants exist: some that have themes, some that begin with a single rule, some that begin with a dictator instead of a democratic process to validate rules, some that combine Nomic with an existing game (like Monopoly or Chess), and even one in which the players are games of Nomic themselves. Even more unusual variants include a ruleset in which the rules are hidden from players' view, and a game which, instead of allowing voting on rules, splits in to two subgames, one with the rule, and one without it.

One offshoot of a now-defunct Nomic (Nomic World) is the Fantasy Rules Committee, which adds every legal rule submitted by a player to the ruleset until no more rules are possible. Then, all the "fantasy rules" are repealed and the game begins again.

Internet Nomic games in English use Spivak pronouns frequently so that the rules can refer to indefinite players easily without using "he or she".

Games of Nomic sometimes last for a very long time - Agora has been going on continuously ever since 1993. According to [1], "Agora itself was started following the collapse of another nomic, Nomic World, which was the first known MUD-based nomic."

External links

A Nomic thesis on the "Mousetrap", published by a player of Agora demonstrates the complicated legal, cultural, and psychological elements of Nomic.
The Nomic page of Peter Suber, among other things, contains a very long list of Nomic games past and present.
nomic.net contains a Nomic Wiki, the Nomic FAQ, a Nomic Bulletin Board, and a variety of other resources.
Nomic card game "Dvorak"

The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted.
Entry	Source	Expression	Field
NOMIC	French	Nouvel ordre mondial de l'information et de la communication	Post & Telecom, Publishing & Graphic Arts
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Crosswords: NOMIC

Specialty definitions using "NOMIC": games. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Nomic inference : an introduction to the logic of scientific inquiry (reference) Nomic Probability and the Foundations of Induction (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"NOMIC" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "NOMIC" is used about 97 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	97	33,269

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "NOMIC"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Danish		nomisk. (various references)

Dutch		nomic. (various references)

German		nomisch. (various references)

Greek		πολυμεταβλητή κατανομή ομαλής δεσμευμένης λοξότητας. (various references)

Italian		nomico. (various references)

Pig Latin		omicnay

Portuguese		nómico. (various references)

Spanish		nómico. (various references)

Swedish		nomisk. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words ending with "NOMIC": aeronomic, agronomic, anomic, antieconomic, antinomic, astronomic, autonomic, bionomic, chemotaxonomic, cytotaxonomic, economic, ergonomic, gastronomic, genomic, gnomic, isonomic, macroeconomic, metronomic, microeconomic, noneconomic, physiognomic, socioeconomic, taphonomic, taxonomic, teleonomic, uneconomic. (additional references)
	Words containing "NOMIC": aeronomical, agronomically, astronomical, astronomically, autonomically, bionomics, cytotaxonomically, economical, economically, economics, ergonomically, ergonomics, gastronomical, gastronomically, gnomical, macroeconomics, metronomical, metronomically, microeconomics, nonastronomical, physiognomical, physiognomically, socioeconomically, taxonomically, uneconomical. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Words rhyming with "NOMIC" (pronounced 'Nom"ic'): Abdominothoracic, Abietic, Abietinic, Abiogenetic, Ablastemic, Abrahamic, Acerbic, Aceric, Acetonic, Achromatic, Achronic, Acidic, Acidific, Aclinic, Acologic, Acopic, Acroatic, Acrobatic, Acrocephalic, Acromonogrammatic, Acrotic, Acrylic, Actinic, Actinolitic, Actinophonic, Adelocodonic, Adenographic, Adenotomic, Adiabatic, Adiactinic, Adipic, Adipolytic, Adonic, Adriatic, Adynamic, AEolotropic, Aerobiotic, Aerodynamic, Aerolitic, AEsthesodic, Agamic, Agamogenetic, Agenesic, Agnatic, Agonic, Agonothetic, Agraphic, Agrypnotic, Albinotic, Alcaic. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "c-i-m-n-o"
	-1 letter: cion, coin, coni, icon.
	-2 letters: con, ion, moc, mon, nim, nom.
	-3 letters: in, mi, mo, no, om, on.
	Words containing the letters "c-i-m-n-o"
	+1 letter: anomic, camion, coming, conium, gnomic, income, manioc, micron, muonic.
	+2 letters: ammonic, anosmic, camions, campion, centimo, clonism, coaming, combine, combing, comings, comping, complin, confirm, coniums, crimson, demonic, encomia, genomic, incomer, incomes, limacon, manioca, maniocs, masonic, mesonic, microns, minorca, miscoin, mocking, monacid, monadic, monodic, moronic, nomadic, omicron, omnific, tonemic, umbonic, uncomic.
	+3 letters: aconitum, acrimony, acromion, ammoniac, amnionic, amniotic, anatomic, anoxemic, armonica, becoming, bionomic, cameoing, campions, caroming, centimos, champion, chomping, chrismon, chroming, chymosin, cinnamon, clomping, clonisms, coamings, coinmate, comaking, combined, combiner, combines, combings, comedian, comingle, complain, compline, complins, compting, confirms, conidium, coumarin, crimsons, cronyism, cuniform, daemonic, daimonic, demoniac, dominick, economic, encomium, eponymic, gnomical, gnomonic, harmonic, hormonic, inchworm, incomers, incoming, inoculum, insomuch, intercom, isonomic, laconism, limacons, macaroni, mandioca, maniocas, marocain, meconium, minorcas, miscoins, miscount, mnemonic, moccasin, monacids, monastic, monecian, monicker, monistic, monoacid, mooching, morainic, mouching, mucinoid, mucinous, myogenic, myotonic, neomycin, nomistic, noncrime, nonmusic, nonohmic, omicrons, omniarch, oncidium, oncoming, pentomic, phonemic, pulmonic, romantic, sermonic, simoniac, smocking, syconium, unciform, upcoming, viomycin.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.