What does novel mean?
Word: Novel
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Novel means a long book that tells about made-up people and events. As an adjective, novel means new and unusual.
Synonyms: fiction
Word origin: From the Italian novella, a new tale, which goes back to the Latin novus, new.
How do you spell novel?
Syllables: nov - el
Tricky part: The word ends in el, not le or al. The last part is said so softly that children guess the vowel.
Watch out for: novle, noval
Memory tip: Say nov-el in two clear beats and let the last beat ring out, NOV-EL, so you hear its e.
Novel in a sentence
Example 1: Ruskin Bond's novel The Room on the Roof is set in Dehradun.
Example 2: I finished the last chapter of the novel at bedtime.
Example 3: Grandpa likes adventure novels more than any other kind of book.
Fun Fact
The Tale of Genji, written in Japan by a lady called Murasaki Shikibu about a thousand years ago, is often called one of the world's earliest novels.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
novvel
a) o
b) e
c) v
d) l
Show answer
c) v. One v is enough in novel.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word:
novel
a) song
b) letter
c) poem
d) story
Show answer
d) story. A novel is a long story told in a book.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) magazeen
b) poetrey
c) novel
d) chaptar
Show answer
c) novel. The others should be magazine, chapter and poetry.
Word Makeup
Choose the suffix that completes the word:
novel
a) est
b) ast
c) ust
d) ist
Show answer
d) ist. A person who writes novels is a novelist, with ist as in artist.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. In which sentence does novel mean new and unusual?
a) I borrowed a novel from the library.
b) Her first novel won a prize.
c) He reads one novel a month.
d) The chef had a novel way of serving dosa.
Show answer
d) The chef had a novel way of serving dosa.
2. Which of these books is a novel?
a) a 300-page book about a boy and his kite
b) a page of a dictionary
c) a four-line poem on a card
d) a train timetable
Show answer
a) a 300-page book about a boy and his kite
