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If someone tells you that you've come up with a novel idea or a novel interpretation of something, it's probably a compliment: not everyone is capable of original thinking. But not everything new is terribly worthwhile; a novelty, for example, is often a cute (or maybe just silly) little object that you might put on a display shelf in your house. It may seem surprising that the familiar noun novel is related as well. In the 14th century, Italian writers began writing collections of short tales, each of which they called a novella because it represented a new literary form; from this word, three centuries later, the English coined the noun novel.
Synonyms
Examples of novel in a Sentence
CNN, 21 Nov. 2024
The potential of quantum computing to address practical issues increases with the emergence of novel quantum dynamics such as quantum advantage and error correction.
—Rohan Pinto, Forbes, 20 Nov. 2024
Lissete Lanuza Sáenz, StyleCaster, 22 Nov. 2024
The book [Robert Harris’s 2016 novel Conclave, on which the film is based] was written several years ago, and the script follows it quite closely.
—Keaton Bell, Vogue, 22 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for novel 
Dictionary Entries Near novel
Cite this Entry
“Novel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/novel. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
novel
1 of 2 adjective
novel
2 of 2 noun
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