fiction

noun fic·tion \ ˈfik-shən \

Updated on: 11 Sep 2017

Definition of fiction

1 a :something invented by the imagination or feigned; specifically :an invented story

… I'd found out that the story of the ailing son was pure fiction.
—Andrew A. Rooney

b :fictitious literature (such as novels or short stories)

was renowned as a writer of fiction

c :a work of fiction; especially :novel

Her latest work is a fiction set during the Civil War.

2 a :an assumption of a possibility as a fact irrespective of the question of its truth

a legal fiction

b :a useful illusion or pretense

it was only a fiction of independence his mother gave him; he was almost totally under her power
—G. A. Wagner

3 :the action of feigning or of creating with the imagination

She engaged in fiction to escape painful realities.

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fictional

play \ˈfik-shnəl, -shə-nᵊl\ adjective

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fictionality

play \ˌfik-shə-ˈna-lə-tē\ noun

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fictionally

play \ˈfik-shnə-lē, -shə-nᵊl-ē\ adverb

See fiction defined for English-language learners

See fiction defined for kids

Examples of fiction in a Sentence

She believes the fiction that crime rates are up.
most stories about famous outlaws of the Old West are fictions that have little or nothing to do with fact

Recent Examples of fiction from the Web

But although Shelley wasn’t successful in selling the English-speaking public on apocalypse fiction, other apocalypse novels by other writers followed in the nineteenth century and up to the present.

— kat eschner, Smithsonian, "The Author of ‘Frankenstein’ Also Wrote a Post-Apocalyptic Plague Novel," 30 Aug. 2017
Those paintings and Von Bruenchenhein's H-bomb series strongly bring to mind the concerns and patterns of 1950s science fiction; some of the weird paintings can be seen as abstract counterparts to SF magazine covers.

— jim higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Von Bruenchenhein's otherworldly art confirms his weird greatness," 24 Aug. 2017
What Wingard has delivered is a fitfully entertaining, clearly compromised hybrid of action, horror and science-fiction.

— noel murray, latimes.com, "'Death Note,' a bloody and controversial manga adaptation, isn't worth all the hubbub," 24 Aug. 2017
But there is also, in them, something particularly fit to the world of the 21st century: the fan fiction.

— megan garber, The Atlantic, "The Enduring Fictions of Princess Diana," 24 Aug. 2017
Some speculate that La Mer’s colorful founder is a fiction, perhaps invented by Estée Lauder (which now owns the brand).

— kathleen hou, The Cut, "10 Conspiracy Theories About the World’s Most Infamous Skin Cream," 23 Aug. 2017
That said, my story is no different than the hundreds of other writers and journalists who had the life-changing opportunity of working at the Voice and learning from many of the finest talents who've ever worked in non-fiction.

— luke o'neil, Esquire, "Generations of Village Voice Writers Reflect on the Paper Leaving the Honor Boxes," 23 Aug. 2017
Consider romance fiction — and yet not all ripped bodices seem to set the blood pumping with equal force.

— john warner, chicagotribune.com, "Writing a best-seller? There's no app for that.," 8 Aug. 2017
The show was Battlestar Galactica, a serious-minded reboot of the campy 1970s series, and the idea was to trick snobby TV Academy members into watching a science-fiction drama without rolling their eyes.

— rebecca keegan, vanityfair.com, "From Game of Thrones to Stranger Things: How Geek TV Crashed the Emmys," 4 Aug. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fiction.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of fiction

Middle English ficcioun "invention of the mind," borrowed from Middle French fiction, borrowed from Latin fictiōn-, fictiō "action of shaping or molding, feigning, pretense, legal fiction," from fig-, variant stem of fingere "to mold, fashion, make a likeness of, pretend to be" + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of verbal action — more at feign

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

See Words from the same year

fiction Synonyms

Synonyms

fable, fabrication, fantasy (also phantasy), figment, invention

Antonyms

fact, materiality, reality

Related Words

anecdote, narrative, novel, story, tale, yarn; fairy tale, falsehood, falsity, fib, lie, mendacity, misrepresentation, prevarication, untruth, whopper; make-believe

Near Antonyms

actuality, realness

Other Literature Terms

apophasis, bathos, bildungsroman, bowdlerize, caesura, coda, doggerel, euphemism, poesy, prosody

FICTION Defined for English Language Learners

fiction

noun

Definition of fiction for English Language Learners

: written stories about people and events that are not real : literature that tells stories which are imagined by the writer
: something that is not true

FICTION Defined for Kids

fiction

noun fic·tion \ ˈfik-shən \

Definition of fiction for Students

1 :something told or written that is not fact

2 :a made-up story

3 :works of literature that are not true stories

Word Root of fiction

The Latin word fingere, meaning “to shape” or “to mold,” and its form fictus give us the roots fig and fict. Words from the Latin fingere have something to do with shaping. The figure of something, especially a person's body, is its shape. To disfigure is to change the shape and ruin the looks of something. Fiction is something written that is not fact but is shaped by the imagination.