ˈfikshən noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English ficcioun, from Middle French fiction, from Latin fiction-, fictio, from fictus + -ion-, -io -ion
1. : the act of creating something imaginary : a fabrication of the mind
2.
a. : an intentional fabrication : a convenient assumption that overlooks known facts in order to achieve an immediate goal
b. : an unfounded, invented, or deceitful statement
the fictions on a bottle of patent medicine
3.
a. : fictitious literature (as novels, tales, romances)
b. : a work of fiction ; especially : novel
4.
a. : an assumption of a possible thing as a fact irrespective of the question of its truth ; specifically : an allegation or supposition in law of a state of facts assumed to exist which the practice of the courts allows to be made in pleading and refuses to allow the adverse party to disprove — distinguished from presumption
b. : an assumption concealing or affecting to conceal that a law has undergone an alteration by which in its operation it is modified while in its letter it remains unchanged
5. archaic : the act of fashioning or inventing
6.
a. : unfounded belief : assumption
all the fictions that go to make up a man's public reputation
b. : a practical or useful illusion or pretense
it was only a fiction of independence his mother gave him; he was almost totally under her power — G.A.Wagner
c. : an imaginary, ideal, logical, or hypothetical construct without a known counterpart in reality or a conception of assumed validity or actuality that serves heuristic purposes especially in the guidance of practical affairs
the average man is a fiction
Synonyms:
figment , fabrication , fable : fiction may refer to any composition wholly an invention of the imagination or noticeably more the product of the imagination than of factual reporting
when we call a piece of literature a work of fiction we mean no more than that the characters could not be identified with any persons who have lived in the flesh, nor the incidents with any particular events that have actually taken place — A.J.Toynbee
at a loss what to invent to detain him, beyond the stale fiction that his father was coming tomorrow — George Meredith
figment may suggest a product of unrestrained fancy or quite free imagination
a gigantic fancy of his own! And all these figures were figments of his brain — John Galsworthy
the metaphysical figments of our own creation — Havelock Ellis
fabrication may apply to an account made up with artifice, deft or clumsy, and with specific intent to deceive
the doctor was a great liar, but a valuable liar. His fabrications seemed to be the framework of a forgotten but imposing plan — Djuna Barnes
the government story was not a complete fabrication but a careful distortion — Christopher Devlin
fable may apply to an obviously fictitious narrative in which the impossible, marvelous, and incredible are employed, often to suggest some moral
the fables of Aesop
whispered suspicions, old wives' tales, fables invented by men who had nothing to do but loaf in the drugstore and make up stories — Sherwood Andersonv
witchcraft and diabolical possession and diabolical disease have long since passed into the region of fables — W.E.H.Lecky