Strong paramagnetic lanthanide orthovanadate (LnVO(4), Ln: Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er) nanoparticles were synthesized under ambient conditions by a novel precipitation method that is economical and fabricating. To the X-ray diffraction patterns, all samples are well-crystallized zircon type orthovanadate and have pure tetragonal phase. Their crystal sizes increased from 12.58 to 15.12 nm with increasing the ionic radii of lanthanide. As confirmed with the surface observation by a transmission electron microscope, it was identified that their two-dimensional projection is an ellipse with the two major axes. It was seen that the sizes of nanoparticles (14.40nm-70.69 nm) were bigger than the crystal sizes because of their polycrystalline structures. Besides, the particle sizes increased with reduction of ionic radii of lanthanide. The magnetic properties obtained from a vibrating sample magnetometer revealed that all nanoparticles are strong paramagnetic at room temperature showing an increase in molar susceptibility up to 4.79 x 10(-1) cm(3) mol(-1). Such highly crystalline, small and paramagnetic nanoparticles could be thought to be convenient for biomedical applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.