Fiction

//ˈfɪk.ʃən// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose. countable, uncountable

    "I am a great reader of fiction."

  2. 2
    a literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact wordnet
  3. 3
    A verbal or written account that is not based on actual events (often intended to mislead). countable, uncountable

    "The company’s accounts contained a number of blatant fictions."

  4. 4
    a deliberately false or improbable account wordnet
  5. 5
    A legal fiction. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
fabricationfabricationfigmentadventure storyallegoryanecdote

Example

More examples

"Reading science fiction sometimes does much to encourage a scientific view of the universe."

Etymology

From Middle English ficcioun, from Old French ficcion (“dissimulation, ruse, invention”), from Latin fictiō (“a making, fashioning, a feigning, a rhetorical or legal fiction”), from fingō (“to form, mold, shape, devise, feign”). Displaced native Old English lēasspell (literally “false story”).

Related phrases

airport fictionchat fictioncli-fidesign fictioneco-fictionencyclopedic fictionexplanatory fictionfaan fictionfact is stranger than fictionfan fictionfan-fictionflash fiction

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Related Topic Clusters

Creative Writing Vocabulary

Evocative words for fiction, poetry, and narrative nonfiction.

Next best steps

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.