novel
1 Americannoun
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a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes.
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(formerly) novella.
adjective
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of a new and unusual kind; different from anything seen or known before.
a novel idea.
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not previously detected or reported.
the emergence of novel strains of the virus.
noun
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Roman Law.
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an imperial enactment subsequent and supplementary to an imperial compilation and codification of authoritative legal materials.
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Usually Novels imperial enactments subsequent to the promulgation of Justinian's Code and supplementary to it: one of the four divisions of the Corpus Juris Civilis.
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Civil Law. an amendment to a statute.
noun
adjective
noun
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an extended work in prose, either fictitious or partly so, dealing with character, action, thought, etc, esp in the form of a story
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the literary genre represented by novels
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obsolete (usually plural) a short story or novella, as one of those in the Decameron of Boccaccio
Usage
What is a novel? A novel is a long work of fiction written in prose that tells a narrative involving characters and usually involving an organized set of actions occurring in a setting. Let’s break that down. Fiction is a type of writing (literature) that involves characters that don’t exist or people (usually famous) who have been reimagined (fictionalized). The events in fiction are made up, or, in the case of historic events, were fictionalized. Prose is the ordinary manner of writing that we use, that is, using complete sentences and not poetic verses. A narrative is a telling of events or experiences. Stories and essays are narratives. A setting is a story’s location and time. Some novels take place in our own time and place, while others take place in the past, in another country, in the future, and even in space or on other planets (real or made-up). Length is usually the key difference between works of fiction. While there are no official rules, a novel is generally at least 50,000 words, and many novels are much longer than this. By contrast, a short story is often 1,000 to 10,000 words, although flash fiction can be as short as 500 words. A novella (a short novel) is somewhere in between a short story and a novel.
Synonym Usage
See new.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of novel1
First recorded in 1560–70; from Italian novella (storia) “new (story)”; see origin at novel 2
Origin of novel2
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Anglo-French, Middle French novel, from Old French novel, nouvel, from Latin novellus “fresh, young, novel,” diminutive of novus “new”; see origin at new
Origin of novel3
First recorded in 1605–15; from Late Latin novella (constitūtiō) “a new (regulation, order)”; see origin at novel 2
Explanation
If something is so new and original that it's never been seen, used or even thought of before, call it novel. The noun novel describes a book-length work of fiction. New and novel come from the same Indo-European root but by different paths. Whereas new is a Germanic word coming from Old English, novel is based on Latin novellus "new, young, fresh." If something is novel, it is new but also original, fresh and unique. Companies are always looking for that novel idea that will earn them millions and skydiving is a novel experience, especially if you're not adventurous.
Vocabulary lists containing novel
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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PARCC: Language of the Test (Grade7)
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TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"You can have an exciting new material with a higher capacity or fast charging, all these novel developments. They typically have one element which is very good, but they suffer on the durability side."
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
Ester Expósito stars in a screen version of Mercedes Ron’s popular romance novel about a business tycoon’s daughter who—after being kidnapped and then promptly returned—gets a very handsome protector.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
Based on Ryan David Jahn’s 2011 novel “The Dispatcher,” the series was adapted by executive producer Kris Mrksa and drops a new episode weekly through Oct.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
After being out of print for decades, the author’s third novel, Survivor, has just been rereleased.
From Slate ● Sep. 9, 2026
Boyle thought of an hypothesis as a useful step towards establishing the truth: a good hypothesis leads to novel predictions which can be tested by experiments.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
