notebook
Americannoun
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notebooks
plural
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They checked the sergeant's notebook for clues to his whereabouts.
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a book or binder of blank, often ruled, pages on which to write, especially one used by students to take notes in class.
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a book in which promissory notes are entered, registered, recorded, etc.
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Digital Technology. a small, lightweight laptop computer.
noun
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a book for recording notes or memoranda
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a book for registering promissory notes
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of notebook
Explanation
A notebook is a blank book that you can write in. Students often carry notebooks, where they can take notes (and doodle). The pages in a notebook are often lined, so that you can write neatly. You might keep one for writing to-do lists or thoughts (like a journal), or your notebooks might all be large binders full of class notes and math problems. Notebooks can be bound like books, or with a spiral metal or plastic binding, or consist of loose pages in a three-ring binder. Another, newer kind of notebook is a slim, lightweight laptop computer.
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:
Hunched over a desk in the Mountain State Spotlight newsroom in Charleston, West Virginia, pen in hand, we scrawled out official notice of our new school in a spiral-bound notebook.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
One day, I saw my older sister carefully burning the edges of a blank notebook.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
Eighteen years later, the FBI would hand the notebook page to the court in the 9/11 families' lawsuit, following a subpoena.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
She already had the beauty and brains, all she’d need was an alias, a leotard and a notebook.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
I hand over the notebook and excuse myself to go to the bathroom so I don’t have to watch as he reads.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
The Wall Street Journal reported that her cellphone, notebooks, personal computers and passport were among the items that were seized.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
At Boulder Bookstore, there’s more than just good reads—look for decorative bookends and notebooks handmade from antique book covers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
A July trip to Target to get everything on her list — among the items, two packs of wired headphones, Band-Aids, eight folders and four composition notebooks — cost about $230.
From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2026
Detectives found notebooks containing “concerning statements” and two radio signal devices.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Even drew the GD symbol in my notebooks.
From "On the Come Up" by Angie Thomas
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
