novelist
Americannoun
noun
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.
It’s Ann Patchett—whom a Slack channel full of conference organizers are looking for, because as it turns out, the novelist loves her privacy so much, she doesn’t own a cellphone.
From Slate • May 8, 2026
Before she was a bestselling romance novelist, Carley Fortune had never so much as written a short story or taken an adult creative writing class.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 7, 2026
If the distinguished Soviet literary scholar Olga Freidenberg is known at all in the West, it is for her 45-year correspondence with her beloved first cousin, the novelist and poet Boris Pasternak.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
Oseman’s shift from novelist to TV writer — and now screenwriter — came with a steep learning curve.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026
Papa's friend, the novelist who lives above the tavern.
From "What the Night Sings" by Vesper Stamper
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.
