novelty
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
describes something made to be funny or unusual rather than serious.
denoting an item intended to be amusing or unusual, often lacking practical utility. Typically used as an attributive adjective.
Simple“He wore a novelty tie with dancing penguins to the office party.”
In context“The company marketed a range of novelty kitchen gadgets that, while visually striking, were notoriously difficult to clean and maintain.”
SynonymsgimmickyquirkyAntonyms
“Photograph: Amanda Cotton/Ceti The animals seem unable to resist novelty, and she is trying to understand why.”
“Count Binface's 9,455 votes and 26.9% vote share was probably the best by-election performance by a novelty candidate.”
From Middle English novelte, from Old French novelté (Modern French nouveauté), from the adjective novel, ultimately from Latin novellus. By surface analysis, novel + -ty.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.