Novice

How to spell novice

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce novice

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does novice mean?

1. nounA person who is new to and inexperienced in a particular activity or skill.
2. nounA person admitted to a religious order on probation before taking vows.

Novice in a sentence

• As a complete novice, she asked the instructor to start with the basics.

• The young novice spent a year in the monastery before taking her vows.

• The climbing club runs a separate session for the novice who joined this month.

• The abbot welcomed each novice into the community with a quiet ceremony.

Where does novice come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin novicius, meaning 'newly arrived' or 'fresh', which was built directly on novus, the ordinary Latin word for 'new'. In medieval Latin novicius came to describe a person newly admitted to a religious community, someone still on probation before taking full vows. English borrowed the word through Old French in the 1300s, keeping both the religious sense and the broader idea of a beginner who has not yet learned the ropes. The root novus survives in a whole family of familiar English relatives, including 'novel', 'novelty', and 'renovate', all of which carry that thread of newness. The spelling trap is the quiet ending: the word sounds like it could finish in '-iss', but it keeps the Latin '-ice'.

How the word is built

• nov- (from Latin novus: new)
• -ice (noun suffix from Latin -icius)