Entry Word: fable

Function: noun

Meaning: 1 a story intended to teach a basic truth or moral about life <this classic Christmas film is essentially a fable showing how every personʼs life has meaning and touches the lives of others> — see allegory
2 a traditional but unfounded story that gives the reason for a current custom, belief, or fact of nature <according to an ancient fable the waters of the mountain spring are the tears of a woman weeping for her lost children> — see myth 1
3 something that is the product of the imagination <the stories of lost cities of gold may have been fables deliberately concocted by Native Americans to dupe the Spanish> — see fiction