fictional

adjective

fic·​tion·​al ˈfik-shnəl 

-shə-nᵊl

: of, relating to, characterized by, or occurring in fiction : invented by the imagination

a fictional story/character

fictional dialogue

Over the past 15 years, Noble has created a fantastical, awe-inspiring fictional city called Nobson Newtown, which he renders in painstakingly detailed pencil drawings …

—Steve Rose

There are several surprises about stories. The first is that we spend a great deal of time in fictional worlds, whether in daydreams, novels, confabulations or life narratives. When all is tallied up, the decades we spend in the realm of fantasy outstrip the time we spend in the real world.

—David Eagleman

Besides scholarly writings and cultural criticism, he's turned out a fictional mystery series starring Edgar Allan Poe …

—Edward Lewine

fictionally

ˈfik-shnəl-ē 

-shə-nᵊl-ē

adverb

… a film that documents the history of space science and fictionally portrays a journey to the moon …

—Lynn Baker et al.

Synonyms

• chimerical
• chimeric
• fabulous
• fanciful
• fantasied
• fantastic
• fantastical
• fictitious
• ideal
• imaginal
• imaginary
• imagined
• invented
• made-up
• make-believe
• mythical
• mythic
• notional
• phantasmal
• phantasmic
• phantom
• pretend
• unreal
• visionary

Examples of fictional in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

While some might assume that its name refers to a person, the store's moniker is actually based on a fictional story created by the company about an American girl, Brandy, who falls in love in Italy with an Englishman, Melville. —Cady Lang, TIME, 12 Apr. 2024

Inspired by the book of the same name, the Apple Originals film stars Bryce Dallas Howard as Elly Conway, a reclusive novelist behind a series of best-selling books about the fictional super spy Argylle (Henry Cavill). —Danielle Directo-Meston, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Apr. 2024

Its protagonist, The Kid (also known as Kid or Kidd), is a bisexual man of indeterminate age who arrives alone at the fictional midwestern city of Bellona and tries to make a life there. —Ilana Masad, The Atlantic, 11 Apr. 2024

What better way to nourish, or to intensify, the fictional figures whom you are hired to portray than to allow your life, offstage, to feed into them? —Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 11 Apr. 2024

The show — following a group of residents in a fictional apartment courtyard complex in West Hollywood, California — ran for seven seasons on Fox, from 1992 to 1999. —Dave Quinn, Peoplemag, 11 Apr. 2024

The past factors heavily into Hackett’s new release, where details of his life intertwine with the tale of a fictional character named Travla. —Ed Masley, The Arizona Republic, 10 Apr. 2024

But the beauty of this novel comes from the grace with which Fisher approaches her fictional alter ego. —Manuel Betancourt, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2024

Once more, Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is not so much a super spy as a superhero, while the now 61-year-old actor once again pushes the limits of what a (fictional or, in Cruise’s stunt person-averse case, actual) human being can withstand. —Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 5 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1834, in the meaning defined above