novelist
Americannoun
-
novelists
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of novelist
Explanation
Someone who writes fictional books is a novelist. If your favorite novelist is Stephen King, it means you're a fan of the horror genre. When someone writes a novel, a book-length, made-up story, they can describe themselves as a novelist. Some novelists also write non-fiction, poetry, or short stories, and you can also simply call them a "writer" or an "author." Novelist was coined to mean "fiction writer" in the 1720s from novel, though the word existed earlier with several different meanings, including "news-carrier" and "innovator."
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.
See Examples For:
In June, he added novelist to an already stacked resume with “Palmdale,” his incredibly entertaining dirtbag-noir debut about a PI and his estranged daughter reuniting over a case.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
Ware, a novelist, wrote the book because she and her husband, journalist Tony Cook, “did everything wrong” in downsizing their homes six times in 10 years.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
"It was love at first sight for me," the future novelist recalled, "but I don't think it was for her."
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Before he died in 2023, McCarthy was widely considered the greatest living novelist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
Goebbels himself—a failed novelist and playwright earlier in life—had taken to reviewing the scripts of nearly all films personally, using a green pencil to strike out or rewrite offending lines or scenes.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Tens of thousands of comments on BookTok, a popular book community on TikTok, attest to the popularity of one of Russia's greatest novelists with the social media generation.
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
When the second-largest U.S. bank discloses its quarterly financial results, analysts have to decipher the lexicon of CEO Brian Moynihan, riddled with obscure, archaic words fit for novelists or judges of bygone centuries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
There’s a comic trope beloved by playwrights, novelists and screenwriters about the fighters all suited up for battle, only to discover that their adversary refuses to play.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
Every year, thousands of would-be novelists pour their hearts onto the page.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
