novel

¹

[nov-uhl]

noun

1. a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes.

2. (formerly) novella.

novel

²

[nov-uhl]

adjective

1. of a new and unusual kind; different from anything seen or known before.

   a novel idea.

2. not previously detected or reported.

   the emergence of novel strains of the virus.

novel

³

[nov-uhl]

noun

1. Roman Law.

   1. an imperial enactment subsequent and supplementary to an imperial compilation and codification of authoritative legal materials.

   2. 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.

2. Civil Law.,  an amendment to a statute.

novel

¹

/ ˈnɒvəl /

noun

1. an extended work in prose, either fictitious or partly so, dealing with character, action, thought, etc, esp in the form of a story

2. the literary genre represented by novels

3. obsolete,  (usually plural) a short story or novella, as one of those in the Decameron of Boccaccio

novel

²

/ ˈnɒvəl /

adjective

1. of a kind not seen before; fresh; new; original

   a novel suggestion

novel

³

/ ˈnɒvəl /

noun

1. Roman law a new decree or an amendment to an existing statute See also Novels

novel

1. A long, fictional narration in prose. Great Expectations and Huckleberry Finn are novels, as are War and Peace and Lord of the Flies.

Other Word Forms

• novellike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of novel¹

First recorded in 1560–70; from Italian novella (storia) “new (story)”; 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”; new

Origin of novel³

First recorded in 1605–15; from Late Latin novella (constitūtiō) “a new (regulation, order)”; novel ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of novel¹

C15: from Old French novelle, from Latin novella ( narrātiō ) new (story); see _novel ²

Origin of novel²

C15: from Latin novellus new, diminutive of novus new

Synonym Study

See new.

Example Sentences

He called Abbey’s novel “relevant as ever,” both a love letter to America and a sharp meditation on the morality of violence — especially when aimed at the systems and machinery of power.

From Los Angeles Times

Instead, he draws from the writer’s letters and diaries, as well as the longer-form works like the barnyard political allegory “Animal Farm” and the dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”

From Los Angeles Times

“Mare of Easttown” captured that sense of mutual understanding in such a novel way, the star observed, “that I thought it kind of caught like wildfire. The best parts of that are alive in ‘Task.’

From Salon

The novels of Dame Jilly Cooper, who has died at the age of 88, are joyous descriptions of a fantasy world where monied men cast smouldering glances and women are instantly aroused.

From BBC

Without giving too much away, Witherspoon and Coben in this novel have tapped into the wealthy’s obsession with using technology to foster super-agers.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• different 
• innovative 
• odd 
• offbeat 
• peculiar 
• strange 
• unique 
• unusual 

When To Use

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.