One who is inexperienced at something. Someone who performs an action relatively poorly due to inexperience, lack of skill, or insufficient training. Can be applied to
people of any age, but most often used to describe someone young. If a young person performs an action with a relatively great amount skill despite their lack of experience or training, they are known as a prodigy.
The
word "novice" is derived from the Latin
word "novus", meaning "new" or "
fresh".
Contemporary synonyms include newbie or
newb, amateur, green, beginner, guppy, and fresh meat. The words noob,
n00b, or nub are sometimes used to describe people with little experience in something, though these words more accurately describe someone who remains incompetent despite large amounts of experience and training.
George was a novice sculptor, so his first attempts at creating a masterpiece were met with failure.
Though he was a novice in this
game, he was eager to learn the ins and outs of the in-game economy from more experienced players.
Sally's poor marksmanship was understandable, because she was a novice and had never fired a
gun before.
