✅ Novel is the perfect word when something is new in an unusual or strikingly different way (The lab developed novel approaches to treat diseases).
✅ Both novel and fresh can refer to ideas or perspectives that are unexpected and generally pleasing (A video game with a thesaurus would be a novel idea).
❗️ You can call a novel novel, but don't mix up novel with the other senses of fresh that are used to describe vegetables or air!
✅ Although same and similar indicate a likeness between two or more things, they are not equivalent!
✅ Same means identical (She always did the exact same thing I did).
✅ Similar, though, is better when you want to describe two things as having certain but not all qualities in common (Their writing styles were very similar, but his was more descriptive than hers).
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✅ Cause and motive refer to the reason for an action (Her graduation was a cause for celebration; Profit was their only motive).
✅ Motive is the perfect word when you want to highlight the desire or incentive which moves a person to act and produce specific results (His motives for meeting with school administrators were purely political).
✅ Motive (commonly found with the adjectives ulterior and selfish) is often more sinister than cause, and is used in legal proceedings to mean the motivation for committing a crime.
Check out more synonyms for motive!