novels - Definition of novels at Define.com Dictionary and Thesaurus (define novels)

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Novel \Nov"el\, noun [F. nouvelle. See {Novel}, adjective]

1. That which is new or unusual; a novelty.

Some came of curiosity to hear some novels. --Latimer.

3. A fictitious tale or narrative, longer than a short story, having some degree of complexity and development of characters; it is usually organized as a time sequence of events, and is commonly intended to exhibit the operation of the passions, and often of love. --Dryden. [1913 Webster +PJC]

4. [L. novellae (sc. constitutiones): cf. F. novelles.] (Law) A new or supplemental constitution. See the Note under {Novel}, adjective

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Novel \Nov"el\, adjective [OF. novel, nuvel, F. nouvel, nouveau, L. novellus, dim. of novus new. See {New}.] Of recent origin or introduction; not ancient; new; hence, out of the ordinary course; unusual; strange; surprising.

Note: In civil law, the novel or new constitutions are those which are supplemental to the code, and posterior in time to the other books. These contained new decrees of successive emperors.

{Novel assignment} (Law), a new assignment or specification of a suit.

Syn: New; recent; modern; fresh; strange; uncommon; rare; unusual.

Usage: {Novel}, {New} . Everything at its first occurrence is new; that is novel which is so much out of the ordinary course as to strike us with surprise. That is a new sight which is beheld for the first time; that is a novel sight which either was never seen before or is seen but seldom. We have daily new inventions, but a novel one supposes some very peculiar means of attaining its end. Novel theories are regarded with distrust, as likely to prove more ingenious than sound.

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

novel

adjective

1: of a kind not seen before; "the computer produced a completely novel proof of a well-known theorem" [syn: {fresh}, {new}]

2: pleasantly novel or different; "common sense of a most refreshing sort" [syn: {refreshing}]

noun

1: a extended fictional work in prose; usually in the form of a story

2: a printed and bound book that is an extended work of fiction; "his bookcases were filled with nothing but novels"; "he burned all the novels"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

122 Moby Thesaurus words for "novel": Bildungsroman, Gothic novel, authentic, avant-garde, bauble, best seller, bibelot, blockbuster, book, bound book, classic, coloring book, comic novel, creative, curio, definitive work, detective novel, different, dime novel, dreadful, epistolary novel, erotic novel, firsthand, folio, fresh, gewgaw, gimcrack, great work, hardback, historical novel, imaginative, juvenile, juvenile book, limp-cover book, magnum opus, modern, modernistic, narrative, neoteric, new, new-fashioned, newfangled, nonbook, notebook, nouvelle, novel of character, novel of ideas, novel of incident, novel of manners, novel of sensibility, novelette, novella, odd, opus, opuscule, opusculum, original, paperback, peculiar, penny dreadful, picaresque novel, picture book, playbook, pocket book, pornographic novel, prayer book, problem novel, production, proletarian novel, propaganda novel, psalmbook, psalter, psychological novel, publication, recent, regional novel, revolutionary, river novel, roman, roman a clef, roman-fleuve, romance, satirical novel, science-fiction novel, sentimental novel, serial, shilling shocker, short story, short-short, singular, sketchbook, sociological novel, soft-cover, songbook, special, standard work, storiette, story, storybook, strange, stream-of-consciousness novel, tale, thesis novel, title, tome, trade book, trifle, trinket, uncommon, unconventional, underived, unfamiliar, unheard-of, unique, untested, untried, unusual, vignette, volume, whatnot, work, writing

NOVEL, noun A short story padded. A species of composition bearing the same relation to literature that the panorama bears to art. As it is too long to be read at a sitting the impressions made by its successive parts are successively effaced, as in the panorama. Unity, totality of effect, is impossible; for besides the few pages last read all that is carried in mind is the mere plot of what has gone before. To the romance the novel is what photography is to painting. Its distinguishing principle, probability, corresponds to the literal actuality of the photograph and puts it distinctly into the category of reporting; whereas the free wing of the romancer enables him to mount to such altitudes of imagination as he may be fitted to attain; and the first three essentials of the literary art are imagination, imagination and imagination. The art of writing novels, such as it was, is long dead everywhere except in Russia, where it is new. Peace to its ashes -- some of which have a large sale.