Choose the Right Synonym for fictitious

fictitious, fabulous, legendary, mythical, apocryphal mean having the nature of something imagined or invented. fictitious implies fabrication and suggests artificiality or contrivance more than deliberate falsification or deception. fictitious characters fabulous stresses the marvelous or incredible character of something without necessarily implying impossibility or actual nonexistence. a land of fabulous riches legendary suggests the elaboration of invented details and distortion of historical facts produced by popular tradition. the legendary exploits of Davy Crockett mythical implies a purely fanciful explanation of facts or the creation of beings and events out of the imagination. mythical creatures apocryphal implies an unknown or dubious source or origin or may imply that the thing itself is dubious or inaccurate. a book that repeats many apocryphal stories

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Fictitious is related to the Medieval Latin word fictīcius, meaning "artificial," "imaginary," "feigned," or "fraudulent." It was first used in English as an antonym for natural. For instance, a fake diamond would be referred to as a fictitious one. This use indicates the word's deeper Latin roots: fictīcius is from the Latin verb fingere, meaning "to mold, fashion, make a likeness of; pretend to be." Nowadays, fictitious is no longer used for physical things shaped by the human hand. Rather, it is typically used for imaginative creations or for feigned emotions.

Examples of fictitious in a Sentence

The characters in the book are all fictitious. She gave a fictitious address on the application.

Recent Examples on the Web Murdaugh’s way from Pamela Pinckney’s trust under the false and fictitious guise of unspecific case expenses. — Danielle Wallace, Fox News, 5 May 2022 Also, the vehicle’s plates were fictitious with expired tags. — John Benson, cleveland, 16 Mar. 2022 Hindenburg described the preorders as largely fictitious or nonbinding. — Ben Foldy, WSJ, 15 June 2021 The car the man was driving was also found to have fictitious plates. — cleveland, 13 May 2022 But on one attempt to smuggle an Iraqi into the U.S. illegally through Mexico, the person was fictitious, and Shihab was communicating with the FBI. — Anchorage Daily News, 25 May 2022 Smith’s fictitious story about knife-wielding panhandlers stoked unfounded fears about people experiencing homelessness, leading to concerns the crime would provoke confrontations. — Alex Mann, baltimoresun.com, 28 Feb. 2022 At the 2011 dinner, Obama skewered an unamused Trump — in his presence — over Trump's fictitious claims about the then-president's birth certificate. — Farnoush Amiri And Will Weissert, USA TODAY, 1 May 2022 At the 2011 dinner, Obama skewered an unamused Trump — in his presence — over Trump’s fictitious claims about the then-president’s birth certificate. — Mitchell Peters, Billboard, 1 May 2022 See More

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