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I am worried that "nonsensual data" might come across as data that does not have a lot of erotic vibe....

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  • 14
    Like the opposite of consensual data?
    – TimR
    Apr 22, 2015 at 11:45
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    You could just use nonsense adjectivally. There are hundreds of written instances of nonsense data in Google Books.
    – FumbleFingers
    Apr 22, 2015 at 12:25
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    No, you can't use nonsense adjectivally (that would be nonsensical), but you can use nonsense as an attributive noun.
    – user230
    Apr 22, 2015 at 12:48
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    I read "nonsensual data" as "data not perceived by the senses" and thought that we were going to be talking about psychics.
    – ColleenV
    Apr 22, 2015 at 20:07
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    "Oh George, your data is so sensual," she moaned. :-) There must be some geek erotica in there somewhere.
    – Jay
    Apr 22, 2015 at 21:18

4 Answers 4

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96

Absolutely not!

The term you're looking for is nonsensical. As in "without sense".

Thanks for the chuckle, haha!

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    Oh ok! Thanks, that's the word! In my head, I thought "nonsense"->"nonsensual", but it did not feel quite right... :-)
    – BoZenKhaa
    Apr 22, 2015 at 11:59
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    That would make sense logically, and if we didn't already have the word "sensual" in the English language that's what it would probably be instead. But yeah, nonsense data is nonsensical and boring old data that doesn't kiss on the first date is nonsensual!
    – Mark
    Apr 22, 2015 at 12:02
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    Well, maybe I should throw away my nonsensical data (since it does not make sense anyway) and go get some sensual data..
    – BoZenKhaa
    Apr 22, 2015 at 12:15
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    Joined this just to upvote this question and answer.
    – Jesvin Jose
    Apr 22, 2015 at 12:31
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    @aitchnyu welcome to the site!
    – DJMcMayhem
    Apr 22, 2015 at 14:37
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non·sen·si·cal

ˌnänˈsensək(ə)l/
adjective
1. having no meaning; making no sense.
"a nonsensical argument"
synonyms: meaningless, senseless, illogical
"her nonsensical way of talking"

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  • 5
    Welcome to ELL :-). Can you please edit your post to add a reference to a dictionary entry? It's a good answer, if it had a reference, I would certainly upvote it ;-)
    – Lucky
    Apr 22, 2015 at 20:04
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    I feel bad that the accepted answer also has no reference, but it gets 37 votes while giving less information than this answer.
    – justhalf
    Apr 23, 2015 at 2:44
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    @justhalf: the accepted answer does not seem to literally quote from a non-disclosed source. It's that unattributed quoting that is the problem - some would call that plagiarism.
    – oerkelens
    Apr 23, 2015 at 9:17
  • @oerkelens: Can you advice me on this? The definition seems to be taken from Google Define by searching "nonsensical" in Google. Google doesn't seem to list the source, though.
    – justhalf
    Apr 23, 2015 at 9:37
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    @J.R.: Can we edit the answer to include that it's from Google Define? It seems exactly the same, and this is the first answer for Jean Desjardins.
    – justhalf
    Apr 23, 2015 at 9:54
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It is also entirely correct to say "nonsense data." In some cases it's actually better. If you were trying to produce data that was nonsense to feed into a program for testing purposes, I would expect it to just be called "nonsense data."

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  • I won't comment on the grammar of "feeding a program nonsense data to see what happens" , but I can concur that this is a very common usage in engineering in the U.S.
    – Adam
    Apr 24, 2015 at 17:06
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As a developer, I would strongly recommend the term contrived for describing data that is without semantic value (e.g. 'lorem ipsum' text). To say something is contrived specifically conveys that it was created intentionally or artificially, which would perfectly explain the existence of data that is otherwise meaningless.

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