notebook
Americannoun
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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
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.
On a notebook on her coffee table, she wrote Cynthia Renee Ortiz, doodling hearts around her prospective married name.
From Slate • Apr. 6, 2026
James Hayes died in 2010 and a notebook containing the numbers was among the belongings he passed on to his son Sean.
From BBC • Mar. 23, 2026
About 8,000 miles from the Middle East, where U.S. forces massed over the past month to prepare for war, Heather Griffith has been jotting a string of rising numbers into a notebook.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 7, 2026
"To cheer myself up, I write memories in my notebook every day. I keep the notebook in my closet, among my clothes, so that no one can access it," she said.
From Barron's • Mar. 3, 2026
I put away my notebook, zip my backpack shut.
From "Clairboyance" by Kristiana Kahakauwila
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.
