Word-Built World: fiction

Dictionary

Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more

fic·tion

/ˈfikSHən/

noun

noun: fiction; plural noun: fictions

  1. 1.literature in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people.
  2. 2.something that is invented or untrue.”they were supposed to be keeping up the fiction that they were happily married”
    • a belief or statement that is false but is often held to be true because it is expedient to do so.”the notion of the country being a democracy is a polite fiction”

Origin

late Middle English (in the sense ‘invented statement’): via Old French from Latin fictio(n- ), from fingere ‘form, contrive’. Compare with feign and figment.

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