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:
While I’m hesitant to claim that Schoenbrun’s primary strength is as a novelist rather than a filmmaker, “Public Access Afterworld” goes some distance toward making that case.
From Salon ● Oct. 29, 2026
Dracula comes from Central Europe by way of the Irish novelist Bram Stoker; the werewolf is a staple of French and German folk tales.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
Faculty have included historian Jill Lepore and novelist and critic Namwali Serpell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
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
I explained that it was entirely my fault the rehearsals fell apart, because halfway through I had decided to become a novelist.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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
But at our best, we novelists probe deeper truths precisely because the facts cannot always, ever, be totally known.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
There’s a comic trope beloved by playwrights, novelists and screenwriters about the fighters all suited up for battle, only to discover that their adversary refuses to play.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
Every year, thousands of would-be novelists pour their hearts onto the page.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
National defense and global prestige, of course, were the two concerns that had moved the reverie of space travel from the purview of novelists and eccentrics to the country’s number-one priority.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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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.
