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Novel vs. Fiction

Novel and Fiction Definitions

Novel

A fictional prose narrative of considerable length, typically having a plot that is unfolded by the actions, speech, and thoughts of the characters.

Fiction

The category of literature, drama, film, or other creative work whose content is imagined and is not necessarily based on fact.

Novel

The literary genre represented by novels.

Fiction

Works in this category
The fiction of Virginia Woolf.

Novel

Strikingly new, unusual, or different.

Fiction

A work within this category
The shorter fictions of Faulkner.
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Novel

Newly made, formed or evolved; having no precedent; of recent origin; new.

Fiction

Narrative, explanatory material, or belief that is not true or has been imagined or fabricated
The notion that he was at the scene of the crime is pure fiction.

Novel

Original, especially in an interesting way; new and striking; not of the typical or ordinary type.

Fiction

A narrative, explanation, or belief that may seem true but is false or fabricated
"Neutrality is a fiction in an unneutral world" (Howard Zinn).

Novel

A work of prose fiction, longer than a novella.

Fiction

(Law) A verbal contrivance that is in some sense inaccurate but that accomplishes a purpose, as in the treatment of husband and wife as one person or a corporation as an entity.
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Novel

(historical) A fable; a short tale, especially one of many making up a larger work.

Fiction

(literature) Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose.
I am a great reader of fiction.
The fiction section of the library

Novel

(obsolete) A novelty; something new.

Fiction

A verbal or written account that is not based on actual events (often intended to mislead).
The company’s accounts contained a number of blatant fictions.
The butler’s account of the crime was pure fiction.
Separate the fact from the fiction

Novel

A new legal constitution in ancient Rome.

Fiction

(legal) A legal fiction.
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Novel

Of recent origin or introduction; not ancient; new; hence, out of the ordinary course; unusual; strange; surprising.

Fiction

The act of feigning, inventing, or imagining; as, by a mere fiction of the mind.

Novel

That which is new or unusual; a novelty.

Fiction

That which is feigned, invented, or imagined; especially, a feigned or invented story, whether oral or written. Hence: A story told in order to deceive; a fabrication; - opposed to fact, or reality.
The fiction of those golden apples kept by a dragon.
When it could no longer be denied that her flight had been voluntary, numerous fictions were invented to account for it.

Novel

News; fresh tidings.
Some came of curiosity to hear some novels.

Fiction

Fictitious literature; comprehensively, all works of imagination; specifically, novels and romances.
The office of fiction as a vehicle of instruction and moral elevation has been recognized by most if not all great educators.

Novel

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.

Fiction

An assumption of a possible thing as a fact, irrespective of the question of its truth.

Novel

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

Fiction

Any like assumption made for convenience, as for passing more rapidly over what is not disputed, and arriving at points really at issue.

Novel

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

Fiction

A literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact

Novel

Of a kind not seen before;
The computer produced a completely novel proof of a well-known theorem

Fiction

A deliberately false or improbable account

Novel

Pleasantly novel or different;
Common sense of a most refreshing sort

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