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.
Rasheed Newson will talk with novelist Laura Warrell at Octavia’s Bookshelf at 6 p.m.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 1, 2026
In a 2008 speech at the PEN Literary Gala, the late Nobel Prize-winning Black novelist Toni Morrison anticipated this new-old order in Donald Trump’s America.
From Salon • May 31, 2026
The novelist Stephanie Sy-Quia drew upon facts from her grandparents’ own marriage to fashion a story of love between two passionate intellectuals.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026
As I ring the doorbell of Maggie O'Farrell's Edinburgh home, I wonder with some trepidation whether the acclaimed novelist might have become a bit starry after the whirlwind few months she's just had.
From BBC • May 22, 2026
Emma was thrilled by the presence of one of the guests—the novelist known as George Eliot, author of one of Emma’s favorite books, Middlemarch.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
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.
