fiction
Pluralfictions (some meanings)
- 1Stories made up from imagination instead of real events, usually written in prose.
Like a daydream written down for other people to enjoy.
She reads a lot of fiction on long train rides.
This book is fiction, so the town in it is not a real place.
Oppositenonfiction
Note
- 2A made-up story told as if it were true, often to fool someone.
Like inventing a story and hoping people believe it really happened.
His excuse was pure fiction, and everyone in the room knew it.
The whole report turned out to be fiction from start to finish.
Similarfabrication, invention, falsehood, lie, fantasy
Note
- 3Something a court treats as true, even when it is not, so a rule can be used fairly.
Like agreeing to pretend something is true so a game's rules still work.
By a useful fiction, the law treats a company as if it were a person.
The judge relied on a fiction to decide the child belonged to both parents.
Note
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of fiction apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
It came through Old French from Latin fictiō, meaning a making or a feigning, from fingō "to form, shape, or feign."