fiction

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: fic=tion

CIDE DICTIONARY

fiction, n. [F. fiction, L. fictio, fr. fingere, fictum to form, shape, invent, feign. See Feign.].

•  The act of feigning, inventing, or imagining; as, by a mere fiction of the mind.  Bp. Stillingfleet.  [1913 Webster]
•  That which is feigned, invented, or imagined; especially, a feigned or invented story, whether oral or written. Hence: A story told in order to deceive; a fabrication; -- opposed to fact, or reality.  [1913 Webster]

  "The fiction of those golden apples kept by a dragon."  [1913 Webster]

  "When it could no longer be denied that her flight had been voluntary, numerous fictions were invented to account for it."  [1913 Webster]
•  Fictitious literature; comprehensively, all works of imagination; specifically, novels and romances.  [1913 Webster]

  "The office of fiction as a vehicle of instruction and moral elevation has been recognized by most if not all great educators."  [1913 Webster]
•  An assumption of a possible thing as a fact, irrespective of the question of its truth.  Wharton.  [1913 Webster]
•  Any like assumption made for convenience, as for passing more rapidly over what is not disputed, and arriving at points really at issue.

Syn. -- Fabrication; invention; fable; falsehood.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

fiction, n.
1 an invented idea or statement or narrative; an imaginary thing.
2 literature, esp. novels, describing imaginary events and people.
3 a conventionally accepted falsehood (legal fiction; polite fiction).
4 the act or process of inventing imaginary things.

Derivative

fictional adj. fictionality n. fictionalize v.tr. (also -ise). fictionalization n. fictionally adv. fictionist n.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. L fictio -onis (as FICTILE)

THESAURUS

fiction

Marchen, Western, Western story, Westerner, adventure story, allegory, anecdote, apologue, apparition, article, autograph, bedtime story, blague, brainchild, bubble, canard, chimera, cock-and-bull story, composition, computer printout, concoction, copy, delirium, detective story, document, draft, edited version, eidolon, engrossment, essay, exaggeration, extravaganza, fable, fabliau, fabrication, fair copy, fairy tale, falsehood, falsity, fancy, fantasque, fantasy, farfetched story, farrago, fib, figment, final draft, finished version, first draft, fish story, flam, flimflam, flimsy, folk story, folktale, forgery, gest, ghost story, half-truth, hallucination, holograph, horse opera, idle fancy, illusion, imagery, imagination, imagining, insubstantial image, invention, legal fiction, legend, letter, lie, literae scriptae, literary artefact, literary production, literature, little white lie, love story, lucubration, maggot, make-believe, manuscript, matter, mendacity, misrepresentation, mystery, mystery story, myth, mythology, mythos, narrative, nonfiction, nursery tale, opus, original, paper, parable, parchment, penscript, phantasm, phantom, piece, piece of writing, pious fiction, play, poem, prevarication, printed matter, printout, production, reading matter, recension, romance, science fiction, screed, scrip, script, scrive, scroll, second draft, shocker, sick fancy, slight stretching, space fiction, space opera, story, suspense story, tale, tall story, tall tale, taradiddle, the written word, thick-coming fancies, thriller, transcript, transcription, trip, trumped-up story, typescript, untruth, vapor, version, vision, whim, whimsy, white lie, whodunit, wildest dreams, work, work of fiction, writing, yarn

ROGET THESAURUS

fiction

Untruth

N untruth, falsehood, lie, story, thing that is not, fib, bounce, crammer, taradiddle, whopper, jhuth, forgery, fabrication, invention, misstatement, misrepresentation, perversion, falsification, gloss, suggestio falsi, exaggeration, invention, fabrication, fiction, fable, nursery tale, romance, absurd story, untrue story, false story, trumped up story, trumped up statement, thing devised by the enemy, canard, shave, sell, hum, traveler's tale, Canterbury tale, cock and bull story, fairy tale, fake, claptrap, press agent's yarn, puff, puffery (exaggeration), myth, moonshine, bosh, all my eye and Betty Martin, mare's nest, farce, irony, half truth, white lie, pious fraud, mental reservation, pretense, pretext, false plea, subterfuge, evasion, shift, shuffle, make-believe, sham, profession, empty words, Judas kiss, disguise, untrue, false, phony, trumped up, void of foundation, without- foundation, fictive, far from the truth, false as dicer's oaths, unfounded, ben trovato, invented, fabulous, fabricated, forged, fictitious, factitious, supposititious, surreptitious, elusory, illusory, ironical, soi-disant, se non e vero e ben trovato, where none is meant that meets the ear.