Meaning & use
novelette
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Meanings
nouncountable
A work of fiction that is longer than a short story but shorter than a full novel.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a novelette' or 'two novelettes'.
Patterns
- write a novelette
- publish a novelette
- a novelette about something
She published her first novelette in a science fiction magazine.
The story began as a short story but grew into a novelette of about 15,000 words.
His latest work is a novelette set in a small coastal town.
nouncountabledisapproving
A short novel, often one considered light or sentimental in style.
Grammar: Countable; often used in a slightly critical or dismissive way.
Patterns
- a romantic novelette
- a sentimental novelette
The critics dismissed the book as a sentimental novelette.
She enjoys reading romantic novelettes on holiday.
Word forms
| plural | novelettes |
|---|
Common combinations
- write a novelette
- He decided to write a novelette while he was between novels.
- publish a novelette
- The magazine agreed to publish her novelette in three parts.
- a science fiction novelette
- That science fiction novelette won a major award.
- a romantic novelette
- The shelf was full of romantic novelettes with painted covers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- novella
- A novella is usually a literary work of similar length, often more serious in tone; 'novelette' can suggest something lighter or more sentimental.
- short story
- A short story is shorter than a novelette and usually focuses on a single incident or moment.
Word family
Commonly confused: novelette or novella? novelette or novel?
novelette vs novella
A novella is generally a more serious literary form of similar length, while a novelette is often used for lighter or genre fiction.
novelette vs novel
A novel is much longer than a novelette; a novelette is closer in length to a long short story.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'novelette' correctly?
Choose one answer.
A novelette is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel, so 20,000 words fits. A 500-page novel is far too long, a 1,000-word short story is too short, and a collection of poems is not a novelette.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “novelette”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.