FABLES Synonyms: 79 Similar and Opposite Words

fables

noun

plural of fable

as in allegories

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 & Similar Words

Relevance

as in myths

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 & Similar Words

as in tales

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 & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in lies

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 & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of fables Fortnum & Mason does not need a goose from Aesop’s fables to have a golden egg. —

Air Mail, 4 Apr. 2026 Both fables and translations are forms of constrained writing. —

Jan Steyn, The Dial, 10 Mar. 2026 The Easter Bunny is on the lookout for the best egg, and along the way, his friends tell him tales and fables. —

Lynnette Nicholas, Parents, 9 Mar. 2026 The performance felt both virtuosic and repulsive, a goulash of hype, sloganeering, and calls to violence spiked with in-jokes, shaggy-dog anecdotes, and populist fables, all of it seductive and—in our dangerous era—familiar. —

Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 26 Feb. 2026 Animated family films have been a staple of entertainment culture for nearly a century and offer a rich catalog of adventures, fables, fairy tales and dramas. —

David Faris, TheWeek, 27 Jan. 2026 Or throw it back with some age-old fables or fairy tales. —

Maya Silver, Outside, 20 Jan. 2026 Nurture the geese who lay the golden eggs One of Aesop’s most famous fables is the tale of the goose that laid a golden egg every day until its owner killed it in an attempt to get all the gold at once. —

Sally Percy, Forbes.com, 7 Jan. 2026 Geminis have a tendency to speak of fables to protect themselves or to make their lives seem more fulfilling. —

Lisa Stardust, PEOPLE, 15 Dec. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for fables

Noun

But if these movies are progressive allegories of beings transcending their differences, then Hoppers is a surprisingly blunt pushback to that notion.

— David Sims, The Atlantic, 26 Mar. 2026
Chandran’s reference to allegories suggests the adaptation is leaning into the arc’s political dimensions — the civil war, the manipulation of a nation by a Warlord of the Sea, and the cost of leadership.

— Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 16 Mar. 2026