How to Use novel in a Sentence

novel

1 of 2 adjective
  • She has suggested a novel approach to the problem.
  • Handheld computers are novel devices.
  • The lessons to be drawn from all of this are not novel.
    Bill McKibben, The New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2021
  • And that’s kind of a neat, novel idea that could come out of it.
    Richard Sima, Scientific American, 23 Dec. 2019
  • Activists in the city have been pushing back against the cars in a novel way.
    Simmone Shah, Time, 11 July 2023
  • The novel coronavirus will have the final say, of course.
    oregonlive, 29 June 2020
  • The inspiration for the show was as novel as the show itself.
    Jeff Truesdell, PEOPLE.com, 17 Apr. 2022
  • The term, which refers to a whole season of sorrow, is not novel.
    NBC News, 14 Oct. 2021
  • And now, a whole new crop of chefs are calling on the powers of the chickpea in novel ways.
    Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 7 Dec. 2018
  • It's been almost a year since the novel coronavirus knocked the league for a loop.
    Nate Davis, USA TODAY, 31 Jan. 2021
  • By the way, as Silva points out, this is not a novel idea.
    Javier Hasse, Forbes, 17 June 2022
  • But then reports of cases of the novel coronavirus hit the news.
    Jackie Mader, The New Republic, 25 Oct. 2021
  • This novel approach to end-of-life care ran contrary to laws in all ...
    Jim Towey, National Review, 22 Oct. 2022
  • The week was a novel idea that gained momentum over the century.
    Cathy M. Rosenthal, San Antonio Express-News, 29 Apr. 2021
  • The novel presents gunslinging across a panoramic desert in a new way.
    Ellen Gamerman, WSJ, 16 June 2021
  • The idea of a middle ground between the puny shirt and the heavy jacket is not exactly novel.
    Jacob Gallagher, WSJ, 21 June 2018
  • Fawns given the novel coronavirus in a lab passed it to other deer.
    Dave Hurteau, Field & Stream, 22 Mar. 2021
  • The novel coronavirus can travel across a room on aerosols or even hover in the air for hours at a time.
    David Axe, Rolling Stone, 12 June 2022
  • This idea is not novel, but has been put on a firmer footing than before.
    The Economist, 22 Mar. 2018
  • And just a few weeks later, the world stopped because of a novel coronavirus.
    Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, Health.com, 12 Oct. 2021
  • Judd said data has shown that omicron is a milder strain of the novel coronavirus.
    Ivana Hrynkiw | Ihrynkiw@al.com, al, 6 Jan. 2022
  • Pennsylvania came up with a novel way to skirt the perils.
    Sam Wood, Philly.com, 26 Mar. 2018
  • There, the concept is not novel and the competition is brisk.
    Ephrat Livni, Quartz, 25 Dec. 2019
  • But the deeply disturbing use of the technology in this way is not novel.
    Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, 16 Feb. 2023
  • The story was about a city whose name few of us had known a few weeks prior, under siege from a novel virus.
    Julia Wick, Los Angeles Times, 3 Jan. 2021
  • Fall turned to winter, then spring, and the outside world locked down for the novel coronavirus.
    Kent Russell, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022
  • Few of us would want to read a novel devoid of colorful wording.
    Lawrence Krauss, WSJ, 21 Jan. 2022
  • The dearth of novel antibiotics is expected to take a toll in other ways.
    Ed Silverman, STAT, 10 Oct. 2021
  • Yes, the idea of a woman like Lucy at that time being in charge in any way was so novel and unique.
    Amy Harrity, Los Angeles Times, 17 June 2022
  • Attempts to cut out agents and publishers are not novel.
    Bloomberg News, NOLA.com, 17 Mar. 2018
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novel

2 of 2 noun
  • But setting up the plot of a novel turned out to be the easy part.
    Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 24 June 2018
  • The two went through the novel, guessing at how to say words aloud.
    Bryan Marquard, BostonGlobe.com, 13 Nov. 2022
  • To catch the spy, agents set up a sting worthy of a crime novel.
    CBS News, 28 May 2017
  • Meg is the author of more than a dozen novels for adults and young adults.
    Marie Milano, Country Living, 24 Feb. 2019
  • But the film diverges from the novel in one key place: the ending.
    Laura Zornosa, Time, 8 Oct. 2022
  • Populism is still with us, and the novel is still a good read.
    Fintan O’Toole, The New York Review of Books, 23 Sep. 2021
  • The slow-flashing strobe light of this novel makes that clear.
    Washington Post, 22 Mar. 2022
  • The show is based on the Hugh Howey novel series of the same name.
    Joe Otterson, Variety, 15 Oct. 2021
  • The series is based on the Tom Wolfe novel of the same name.
    Joe Otterson, Variety, 13 July 2022
  • Some went on to lead lives that are the stuff of novels, and others came to sad ends.
    The Aegis, 8 May 2017
  • The series is based on the acclaimed bestselling novel of the same name.
    Josie Howell | , al, 14 Apr. 2023
  • The theme of his children's novel is that too much screen time is a bad thing.
    Rex Nelson, Arkansas Online, 3 Oct. 2020
  • Some tuck a novel or two into their totes and head out.
    Talia Richman, baltimoresun.com, 31 Aug. 2019
  • The novel’s thoughts on fame are among its least inspired.
    New York Times, 1 Sep. 2021
  • Part of the novel’s impact owes to its shifting point of view.
    Jessica Ferri, Los Angeles Times, 12 July 2023
  • Tale novel was based on the real world or came straight from the Bible.
    Hillary Kelly, Vulture, 28 Apr. 2021
  • While novel, the idea of sleeping in a pub is hardly new.
    Stephanie Vermillion, Travel + Leisure, 17 Oct. 2021
  • Each of those two novels has sold more than a million copies.
    David Meyer, Fortune, 5 Oct. 2017
  • The novel reframes that world from a young woman’s point of view.
    Will Coviello, NOLA.com, 10 Aug. 2020
  • There is constant movement both within scenes and in the grand sweep of the novel.
    Amy Brady, Scientific American, 1 Apr. 2022
  • But a novel workaround might help the states lower their costs.
    Ed Silverman, STAT, 14 June 2018
  • The novel is unsettling but thrilling, and a classic work that has stood the test of time.
    Robert English, EW.com, 17 Sep. 2022
  • Shirley murmurs, deep in thought about the ending of her novel.
    Philippa Snow, The New Republic, 12 June 2020
  • To say anything more would be to spoil the novel terribly.
    Ilana Masad, Los Angeles Times, 25 May 2022
  • Those may sound like themes more fit for a novel or an art film than a rock album.
    Damon Linker, TheWeek, 10 Oct. 2020
  • The novel is a durable form no matter how many times its death has been declared.
    Christian Lorentzen, Harper's magazine, 10 Apr. 2019
  • Rows of dusty novels and thick textbooks sit on wooden shelves and on racks.
    Zahria Rogers, The Courier-Journal, 3 July 2018
  • Trujillista sadists do the exact same thing in the novel.
    Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 17 July 2017
  • The headphone jack is nice, and a bit more novel of an addition.
    Gabrielle Hondorp, Popular Mechanics, 15 Jan. 2021
  • Busqued was working on his third novel when struck down.
    John Hopewell, Variety, 28 Sep. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'novel.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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