novelist
Americannoun
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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
He liked to talk about Graham Greene, the British novelist, and his novel on Haiti, The Comedians, which narrated the story of the Duvaliers and their secret police.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Its suggestiveness has made music a subject of perennial fascination to novelists, who work with a very different tool.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
For decades, bestseller lists and prestigious literary awards have featured Jewish novelists from Philip Roth to Michael Chabon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
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
Most recently, Communion was included on the Observer's best debut novelists of 2026 - a list which previously picked out bestsellers including Rooney's Conversation with Friends and The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton.
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
Russia was known for its stormy classical music, its tormented poets, its mournful novelists and bittersweet playwrights.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
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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.
