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.
