Meaning & use
novel
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A long book of invented story, usually with characters and a plot that develops over many chapters.
Grammar: Can be read, written or published: read a novel.
Patterns
- write a novel
- a novel about something
- a novel by someone
She spent two years writing her first novel.
I finished the novel on the train.
The novel is set in a small fishing village.
adjectivecomparableformal
New and different from anything seen before, in a way that attracts interest.
Grammar: Goes before a noun or after be: a novel idea.
Patterns
- a novel approach
- novel idea
The lab developed a novel way of cleaning water.
It was a novel experience for the whole family.
Her novel design won an award.
Word forms
| plural | novels |
|---|
Common combinations
- write a novel
- He decided to write a novel in a month.
- a best-selling novel
- Her best-selling novel became a film.
- historical novel
- I enjoy a good historical novel.
- novel approach
- The school tried a novel approach to homework.
- novel idea
- That is a novel idea, but is it practical?
Synonyms and how they differ
- book
- Book is any bound work, while novel names only long fictional stories.
- fiction
- Fiction is the whole category of invented stories, and a novel is one type within it.
- original
- Original means first of its kind and is closer to novel in the adjective sense, though it can be used more widely.
- innovative
- Innovative stresses clever new methods, whereas novel simply means new and unusual.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: novel or novella? novel or new?
novel vs novella
A novella is shorter than a novel but longer than a short story.
novel vs new
Novel as an adjective is stronger than new, because it also implies unusual and interesting.
Practice
The engineers came up with a ____ solution that no one had tried before.
Choose one answer.
Novel as an adjective means new and unusual. Common, stale and ordinary all contradict the idea that nobody had tried it.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “novel”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.