novella

noun no·vel·la \ nō-ˈve-lə \

|Updated on: 17 Jun 2018

Examples: novella in a Sentence

Definition of novella

plural novellas or novelle play \nō-ˈve-lē\

1 plural novelle : a story with a compact and pointed plot

2 plural novellas : a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel

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Examples of novella in a Sentence

pressed for time, many English teachers have their students read the one novella among the novelist's works

Recent Examples of novella from the Web

More fiction: Stephen King, whose thriller The Outsider just hit stores in May, returns in October with the novella Elevation, about a man mysteriously losing weight while battling the lesbians next door.

— jocelyn mcclurg, USA TODAY, "Michelle Obama, King, Sparks, Grisham, Witherspoon: An early look at the big books of fall," 1 June 2018
Nightflyers, a 10-episode series based on the Game of Thrones author's 1980 novella, arrives this fall on Syfy.

— brian truitt, USA TODAY, "First look: George R.R. Martin's 'Nightflyers' scares up a 'Shining'-in-space scenario," 20 Mar. 2018
The song's relationship to Tiffany & Co. dates back to Truman Capote's novella about Miss Holiday Golightly, who was later immortalized on the big screen by Audrey Hepburn.

— avery matera, Teen Vogue, "Elle Fanning and A$AP Ferg Team Up on Tiffany & Co.'s Holly Golightly-Inspired Campaign," 4 May 2018
The two play young lovebirds in On Chesil Beach, the movie adaptation of Ian McEwan's novella of the same name, out May 18.

— morgan baila, refinery29.com, "Saoirse Ronan Thinks Love Can Set Her Free In New On Chesil Beach Clip," 15 May 2018
Head On is the sequel to Scalzi’s 2014 thriller Lock In and an accompanying novella, Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome.

— andrew liptak, The Verge, "John Scalzi’s Head On is a murder mystery set in a robot fighting league," 17 Apr. 2018
Author Liane Moriarty, who wrote the original book, wrote a novella on which the Season 2 storyline is partially based.

— julie kosin, Harper's BAZAAR, "Big Little Lies Season 2: Everything We Know," 29 Jan. 2018
The novella is written in a swirling, rambling style — one that Martel captures perfectly.

— carlos valladares, San Francisco Chronicle, "Argentine director Lucrecia Martel to attend Berkeley retrospective of her work," 16 Apr. 2018
Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol' Mark Twain’s A Double-Barreled Detective Story is a novella-length parody of whodunits.

— Newsweek, "Amazing Photos of Bioluminescent Phytoplankton," 14 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'novella.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of novella

borrowed from Italian, "piece of news, announcement, story, narrative," noun derivative from feminine of novello "new," going back to Latin novellus "young, tender (of plants or animals)," from novus "new" + -ellus, diminutive suffix — more at ¹new

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First Known Use: 1677

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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