novella
Americannoun
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a tale or short story of the type contained in the Decameron of Boccaccio.
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a fictional prose narrative that is longer and more complex than a short story; a short novel.
noun
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(formerly) a short narrative tale, esp a popular story having a moral or satirical point, such as those in Boccaccio's Decameron
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a short novel; novelette
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of novella
From Italian, dating back to 1900–05; see origin at novel 1
Compare meaning
How does novella compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Short novels are called novellas. If you don't want to write a novel, but have more to say than a short story, you could try writing a novella. You've surely heard of plays, poems, short stories, and novels. But novellas? They're not as well known, but pretty simple: nothing more than short novels. Sometimes novellas are called novelettes, but whatever you call them, you'll probably read a few in English class. Sometimes it's easier to squeeze in a novella than a whole novel, so maybe you could start with Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" or Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis."
Vocabulary lists containing novella
Brand Spankin' New: Words with Neo- and Nov-
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Literary Genres - Introductory
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Reading: Literature - Fiction - Introductory
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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:
Based on his 1997 children’s novella, this economical piece of autofiction chronicles a life-changing cross-country flight in 1962 from Travolta’s childhood home in New Jersey to the sunny streets of Los Angeles.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026
More than 80 years after he was created in Albert Camus’s 1942 novella “The Stranger,” Meursault is still the same chilling prophet of alienation, a walking caricature of emotionlessness who is nevertheless spellbinding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2026
Whether Egg had Maekar’s permission to join Dunk’s travels as his squire is left more open ended in the novella itself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 22, 2026
"Train Dreams," director Clint Bentley's adaptation of the Denis Johnson novella, follows a railroad worker and the transformation of the American northwest across the 20th century.
From Barron's ● Feb. 16, 2026
As you must know, it would be unusual for us to publish a complete novella by an unknown writer, or for that matter a well-established one.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
The novellas are composed of nested stories inspired by Scheherazade’s tales in “One Thousand and One Nights.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas also questions whether those who inherit rulership deserve that duty, reflecting their cravenness in shining gleam of its heroes’ virtue.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2026
Another spin-off, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, adapted from a series of novellas written by Martin, launched last month.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2026
Martin’s “Tales of Dunk and Egg” series of novellas, saw the hopeful hedge knight make some progress toward achieving his dreams.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2026
Separated but by half a century the cantos are the antipodes of the novellas.
From Historia Amoris: A History of Love, Ancient and Modern by Saltus, Edgar
Included in the novel's 496-page sweep are three brilliant novelle: Ensign Woodbridge's encounter with the hypocritical missionaries, the story of the Irish monk and the satanic trader, Parker, and Seaman O'Connell on a berserk rampage.
From Time Magazine Archive
Both these incidents are the common property of Italian novelle and our own stage.
From The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume I by Summers, Montague
Most of his novelle read like summaries of novels,––setting forth an abstract synopsis of the action rather than a concrete representation of it.
From A Manual of the Art of Fiction by Hamilton, Clayton Meeker
Most of his novelle read like summaries of novels,—setting forth an abstract synopsis of the action rather than a concrete representation of it.
From Materials and Methods of Fiction With an Introduction by Brander Matthews by Hamilton, Clayton Meeker
I'll warrant it is not Mr. Butter's Spellings nor Murray the Grammarian, but some trash of a novelle.
From Gilian The Dreamer His Fancy, His Love and Adventure by Munro, Neil
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.
