dime novel

1. 1.

   a melodramatic paperback novel

   Synonymspenny dreadful

   Broadernovel

Questions about dime novel

What does dime novel mean?

dime novel means "a melodramatic paperback novel".

What is another word for dime novel?

Close synonyms include penny dreadful. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is dime novel a common word?

dime novel is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.