novel

• (UK) enPR: nŏvʹəl, IPA^(key): /ˈnɒvəl/, [ˈnɒvl̩]
• (US) enPR: nävʹəl, IPA^(key): /ˈnɑvəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: novel
• Rhymes: -ɒvəl

From Middle English novel, from Old French novel (“new, fresh, recent, recently made or done, strange, rare”) (modern nouvel, nouveau), from Latin novellus (“new, fresh, young, modern”), diminutive of novus (“new”). Doublet of nouveau.

novel (comparative more novel, superlative most novel)

1. Newly made, formed or evolved; having no precedent; of recent origin; new.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:new

2. Original, especially in an interesting way; new and striking; not of the typical or ordinary type.

   Synonym: unusual

• Said of ideas, ways, etc.

• novelly

• novelty

Borrowed from Italian novella, from Latin novella, feminine of novellus. Doublet of novella.

novel (plural novels)

1. A work of prose fiction, longer than a novella. [from 17th c.]
   • 1800, Vicesimus Knox, “Essay XIV (On Novel reading)”, in Essays Moral and Literary, volume I, page 100:

     If it be true, that the preſent age is more corrupt, than the preceding, the great multiplication of Novels has probably contributed to its degeneracy. Fifty years ago there was ſcarcely a Novel in the kingdom. Romances, indeed, abounded; but they, it is ſuppoſed, were rather favorable to virtue.

   • 1964, Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 151:

     Since I had started to break down all my writing and get rid of all facility and try to make instead of describe, writing had been wonderful to do. But it was very difficult, and I did not know how I would ever write anything as long as a novel. It often took me a full morning of work to write a paragraph.

2. (historical) A fable; a short tale, especially one of many making up a larger work. [from 16th c.]
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 4:

     merry tales […] such as the old woman told of Psyche in Apuleius, Boccace novels, and the rest, quarum auditione pueri delectantur, senes narratione, which some delight to hear, some to tell, all are well pleased with.

• → Bengali: নভেল (nobhel)
• → Scottish Gaelic: nobhail
• → Welsh: nofel

From Middle English novel, from Old French novelle, from Latin novella, feminine of novellus.

novel (plural novels)

1. (obsolete) A novelty; something new. [15th–18th c.]
   • 1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 7:

     Libum is a cake made of Honey (sugar is a nouvelle, since the discovery of America), meale and oyle.

Borrowed from Latin novella, feminine of novellus.

novel (plural novels)

1. (classical studies, historical) A new legal constitution in ancient Rome. [from 17th c.]
   • 1979, Jeffrey Richards, The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, 476–752, page 15:

     The normal and natural relationship of emperor and churchman was summed up by Justinian in one of his novels […]

• Loven, Venlo

From Dutch novelle, from Italian novella, from Latin novella, feminine of novellus. Doublet of novela and novelet.

• IPA^(key): [ˈnovɛl]
• Rhymes: -vɛl, -ɛl, -l
• Hyphenation: no‧vèl

novel (plural novel-novel)

1. (literature) novel: a work of prose fiction, longer than a novella

   Synonym: roman

• “novel” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

novel

1. alternative form of navel

• nuvel (Anglo-Norman)

From Latin novellus, from novus.

• IPA^(key): /nuˈvɛl/

novel m (oblique and nominative feminine singular novele)

1. new

• viel, ancien

• novele
• novelté

• Middle French: nouveau
  • French: nouveau
    • Haitian Creole: nouvo
    • Mauritian Creole: nouvo
    • Seychellois Creole: nouvo
    • → English: nouveau
• Norman: nouvieau
• Walloon: novea
• → Middle English: novel
  • English: novel (“new”)

• novelh

From Latin novellus. Compare Old French novel.

2=novels
3=novellas

novel m (feminine singular novela, masculine plural novels, feminine plural novelas)

1. new

• Occitan: novèu, navèth, novèl

Borrowed from Catalan novell, from Latin novellus. Doublet of novillo.

• IPA^(key): /noˈbel/ [noˈβ̞el]
• Rhymes: -el
• Syllabification: no‧vel

novel m or f (masculine and feminine plural noveles)

1. novel, new

novel m or f by sense (plural noveles)

1. newbie, green

• “novel”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024