fictionalize

verb

fic·tion·al·ize ˈfik-shnə-ˌlīz

-shə-nə-ˌlīz

fictionalized; fictionalizing

transitive verb

: to make into or treat in the manner of fiction

fictionalize a biography

fictionalization

ˌfik-shnə-lə-ˈzā-shən

-shə-nə-lə-

noun

Example Sentences

The book is a fictionalized account of their travels. Her books are based in fact, but she fictionalizes many of the events.

Recent Examples on the Web The choice to fictionalize Schlosser's journalism robs the story of its true impact by muddying the factual waters. —

Brian Smolensky, EW.com, 13 Dec. 2022 Noomin waited years after her losses before writing about them, and the conflict between wanting to fictionalize her story and to tell it honestly is dramatized through conversations with an alter ego. —

Agatha French, New York Times, 22 Nov. 2022 To turn that story into a feature film required Wilson-Cairns and Lindholm to fictionalize certain aspects and change some details. —

Emily Zemler, Los Angeles Times, 26 Oct. 2022 The show, which premieres Wednesday on Freeform, is a decent little sitcom that finds an effective way to frame and fictionalize its star, writes television critic Robert Lloyd. —

Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2022 Shiryaev’s enhancements fictionalize certain aspects of a scene that are unknowable a century after the film was shot. —

Matt Simon, Wired, 12 Aug. 2020 Is fictionalizing certain elements of your life in the stories in Screen Tests a way of complicating this? —

Tobias Carroll, Longreads, 25 July 2019 Johnson has been fictionalized before, but this time, viewers see an older version after a decade behind bars for drug conspiracy. —

CBS News, 28 Sep. 2019 A century later, Albinati has fictionalized the crime his classmates committed and elaborated on it in the language of broad-brush cultural criticism. —

Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 19 Aug. 2019 See More

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