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Among the ancient Romans, a novice (novicius) was usually a newly enslaved person, who had to be trained in his or her duties. Among Catholics and Buddhists, if you desire to become a priest, monk, or nun, you must serve as a novice for a period of time, often a year (called your novitiate), before being ordained or fully professing your vows. No matter what kind of novice you are—at computers, at writing, at politics, etc.—you've got a lot to learn.
Examples of novice in a Sentence
Novices serve time as scullery serfs as they work toward the privilege of trailing a pastry chef …
—
Guy Trebay, New York Times, 4 Sept. 2002
For the novice, walking the course also means being scared senseless by all the possibilities to screw up.
—Tim Keown, ESPN, 17 Sept. 2001
Yet it's obvious to him and everyone else who the novice is here, the book-learned tournament virgin.
—James McManus, Harper's, December 2000
Much defter than one would have thought possible from the length of her fingernails, Toula had no fear of high fast notes; her flair, mounted between Andrea's perfectionist reserve and Alice's novice awkwardness, seemed all too displayed.
—John Updike, The Afterlife, 1994
He's a novice in cooking.
a book for the novice chess player
Guy Trebay, New York Times, 4 Sept. 2002
For the novice, walking the course also means being scared senseless by all the possibilities to screw up.
—Tim Keown, ESPN, 17 Sept. 2001
Yet it's obvious to him and everyone else who the novice is here, the book-learned tournament virgin.
—James McManus, Harper's, December 2000
Much defter than one would have thought possible from the length of her fingernails, Toula had no fear of high fast notes; her flair, mounted between Andrea's perfectionist reserve and Alice's novice awkwardness, seemed all too displayed.
—John Updike, The Afterlife, 1994
He's a novice in cooking.
a book for the novice chess player
Recent Examples on the Web
The ideal approach is to let veterans and novices collaborate, as tech alone cannot capture the human spirit.
—Deepa Nagraj, Forbes, 10 Mar. 2025
Long banking career and political novice Carney, who has had a high-profile banking career, is a political outsider who has never held political office.
—Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY, 10 Mar. 2025
In the coming days, Mark Carney will be sworn in as the 24th Prime Minister of Canada, a political novice stepping onto the ice at a moment of maximum peril, both for his party and his country.
—Stephen Maher, TIME, 9 Mar. 2025
Everyone is a novice in something and AI can act as a bridge between the experts in one area and novices in another.
—John Sviokla, Forbes, 8 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for novice
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Deepa Nagraj, Forbes, 10 Mar. 2025
Long banking career and political novice Carney, who has had a high-profile banking career, is a political outsider who has never held political office.
—Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY, 10 Mar. 2025
In the coming days, Mark Carney will be sworn in as the 24th Prime Minister of Canada, a political novice stepping onto the ice at a moment of maximum peril, both for his party and his country.
—Stephen Maher, TIME, 9 Mar. 2025
Everyone is a novice in something and AI can act as a bridge between the experts in one area and novices in another.
—John Sviokla, Forbes, 8 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for novice
Cite this Entry
“Novice.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/novice. Accessed 18 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
novice
noun
nov·ice
ˈnäv-əs 
1
: a new member of a religious order who is preparing to take the vows of religion
2
: a person who has no previous experience with something
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