novel
NOV-uladjMeaning new and unusual
Memory hook NOV = NEW: a brand-NEW idea. Sami builds a little robot that walks the dog for him, leash and all; no one in town has seen anything like it. The idea is novel.
Using a kite to deliver the birthday card was a novel idea.
In context The inventor’s solution was novel: instead of building a bigger dam, she planted thousands of trees upstream to slow the floodwater.
Similar new, original, fresh, unusual
Opposite old, familiar, conventional
From Latin novellus, “new,” from novus (new).