fable

1 a story intended to teach a basic truth or moral about life this classic Christmas film is essentially a fable showing how every person's life has meaning and touches the lives of others Synonyms apologue, allegory, parableRelated Words beast fable, bestiary; morality play; legend, myth, mythology, narrative, tale

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 Synonyms myth, legend, mythosRelated Words allegory, parable; fabrication, fantasy (also phantasy), fiction, figment, invention; narrative, saga, story, tale, yarn

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 Synonyms fiction, fabrication, fantasy (also phantasy), figment, inventionRelated Words anecdote, narrative, novel, story, tale, yarn; fairy tale, falsehood, falsity, fib, lie, mendacity, misrepresentation, prevarication, untruth, whopper; make-believeNear Antonyms actuality, realnessAntonyms fact, materiality, reality

4 a statement known by its maker to be untrue and made in order to deceive the fables that people tell themselves to rationalize their failures and shortcomings Synonyms lie, fabrication, fairy tale, falsehood, falsity, fib, mendacity, prevarication, story, tale, taradiddle (or tarradiddle), untruth, whopperRelated 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, fraudulenceNear Antonyms fact, truism, verity; honesty, truthfulness, veracity; authentication, confirmation, substantiation, validation, verificationAntonyms truth