Notebook

How to spell notebook

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce notebook

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does notebook mean?

1. nounA book of blank or lined pages used for writing notes by hand.
2. nounA small, lightweight portable computer.

Notebook in a sentence

• She jotted the meeting times in a small notebook.

• She edited the report on her slim notebook during the flight.

• He kept a spiral notebook in his bag for sketches and lists.

• The new notebook weighs barely a kilogram and runs all day on one charge.

Where does notebook come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound formed from 'note' and 'book', both of which have long histories in the language. 'Note' came into English in the 1300s from Old French 'note', which traced back to the Latin 'nota', meaning a mark, sign, or written observation. 'Book' is far older and thoroughly native, descending from the Old English 'boc', a word once linked to the beech tree, since early Germanic writing was reportedly carved on beech wood tablets. The two words were joined into 'notebook' by the sixteenth century to name a blank bound book kept for jotting things down. Much later, in the late twentieth century, the same word was borrowed for a small portable computer shaped roughly like such a book.

How the word is built

• note (a written record)
• book (bound pages)