nonmember

Nonmember is a term used to describe a person who is not a member of a particular group, organization, or category. It is often used in administrative, legal, and social contexts to distinguish individuals who do not hold formal membership rights or responsibilities from those who do.

In organizational contexts, nonmembers may have restricted access to resources, services, or decision-making processes that are available to members. For example, members of a club or association may receive voting rights, discounted fees, or eligibility for governance roles, whereas nonmembers may pay higher fees or be excluded from certain benefits.

In law and policy, nonmembers can refer to persons who are outside a defined membership or eligibility threshold for entitlements, programs, or protections. Some programs explicitly delineate between members and nonmembers in applying standards, obligations, or benefits.

In mathematics and logic, nonmember is used to indicate that an element is not a member of a set: for a set A and an element x, x is a nonmember of A if x ∉ A. This usage is common in formal notation and proofs.

The term is typically informal and context-dependent; alternative formulations include "not a member" or "outside the membership." See also membership, outsider, nonmembership.