Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

National Book Award

American  
[nash-uh-nl book uh-wawrd, nash-nuhl] / ˈnæʃ ə nl ˈbʊk əˌwɔrd, ˈnæʃ nəl /

noun

  1. any of several awards given annually to an author whose book is judged the best in its category: presented 1936–42, reestablished 1950, and since 1998 administered by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization. NBA, N.B.A.


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 2010, she was a finalist for the National Book Award for “So Much for That,” an empathetic account of a married couple facing terminal illness within a ruthless American health-care system.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 31, 2026

Patti Smith, the celebrated rock poet who won a National Book Award for ‘Just Kids,’ revisits her hardscrabble childhood, success and the loss of her husband, Fred Sonic Smith, in ‘Bread of Angels.’

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 19, 2025

Morgan, including in a project for which he won the National Book Award, but he feared that more books about “Gilded Age moguls” would make him stale.

From Slate Oct. 21, 2025

National Book Award winner Tahir garnered a vast teen audience with her “An Ember in the Ashes” fantasy series.

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 25, 2024

He’s won a Pulitzer, a National Book Award and a job consulting on a cable news show.

From "Wintergirls" by Laurie Halse Anderson

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training