fairy tale

fairy tale

noun

Definition of FAIRY TALE

1

a : a story (as for children) involving fantastic forces and beings (as fairies, wizards, and goblins) —called also fairy story

b : a story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending

2

: a made-up story usually designed to mislead

Examples of FAIRY TALE

1. the fairy tale about the sleeping princess
2. Everything he told us about his happy marriage was just a fairy tale.

First Known Use of FAIRY TALE

1749

Related to FAIRY TALE

Synonyms

fable, fabrication, lie, falsehood, falsity, fib, mendacity, prevarication, story, tale, taradiddle (or tarradiddle), untruth, whopper

Antonyms

truth

Related Words

distortion, exaggeration, half-truth; ambiguity, equivocation, obliquity; defamation, libel, slander; perjury; bluff, fiction, pose, pretense (or pretence); humbug, jive, nonsense; canard, fallacy, misconception, myth; falsification, misinformation, misreport, misrepresentation, misstatement; deceit, deceitfulness, dishonesty, duplicity, fraudulence

Near Antonyms

fact, truism, verity; honesty, truthfulness, veracity; authentication, confirmation, substantiation, validation, verification

Rhymes with FAIRY TALE

abigail, altar rail, armored scale, audit trail, aventail, beavertail, bristletail, button quail, clapper rail, coffin nail, Corriedale, cottontail, countervail, Coverdale, direct mail, disentail, draggle-tail, farthingale, fingernail, forestaysail, gaff-topsail, galingale, garage sale, ginger ale, Holy Grail, humpback whale, Irish mail, killer whale, macroscale, martingale, microscale, monorail, montadale, nanoscale, nightingale, Nightingale, old wives' tale, overscale, paper trail, pilot whale, ponytail, purple scale, romeldale, rummage sale, sliding scale, solar sail, studding sail, Sunnyvale, swallowtail, tattletale, tooth and nail, tripletail, trundle-tail, vapor trail, yellowtail

fairy tale

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

Simple narrative typically of folk origin dealing with supernatural beings. Fairy tales may be written or told for the amusement of children or may have a more sophisticated narrative containing supernatural or obviously improbable events, scenes, and personages and often having a whimsical, satirical, or moralistic character. The term embraces popular folktales such as “Cinderella” and “Puss in Boots,” as well as art fairy tales of later invention, such as those by Hans Christian Andersen. It is often difficult to distinguish between tales of literary and oral origin, because folktales have received literary treatment from early times, and literary tales can often be traced back to oral tradition.