FICTITIOUS


Meaning of FICTITIOUS in English

(ˈ)fik|tishəs adjective

Etymology: Latin fictitius, ficticius, from fictus (past participle of fingere to shape, form, devise, feign) + -itius, -icius -itious — more at dough

1. : of, relating to, or suggestive of fiction or a fiction

fictitious value

: imaginary

2.

a.

(1) : conventionally or hypothetically assumed

a fictitious entity

a fictitious concept

(2) : accepted although known to be untrue, unnatural, or unreal : arbitrarily accepted as genuine

like a jealous stepmother … wary of the favors she bestows on her fictitious offspring — J.F.Cooper

b. of a name : assumed

c. of a celestial object : assumed at a given time to be in the position that would be occupied if the apparent motion were perfectly uniform

the fictitious sun

3. : feigned , simulated : not genuinely felt

sure that this equanimity was fictitious — George Meredith

Synonyms:

fabulous , legendary , mythical , apocryphal : fictitious applies to fabrication or contrivance, often artful, without necessary intent to deceive, or to false evaluation

a fictitious reconstruction of primitive life before the coming of the white man — American Guide Series: Oregon

he was a novelist: his amours, and his characters, were fictitious — O.S.J.Gogarty

a fictitious expansion of expenditure creating a morbid speculation — Norman Angell

fabulous applies to the marvelous or incredible; it describes that which, existent or not, transcends accustomed sober reality

fabulous atomic weapons

the fabulous pirate treasures of Captain Kidd

out in Montana in the 1860s fabulous mining strikes made boom towns overnight — Saturday Review

the mouth of the converter belched fire like some fabulous dragon, its flames leaping forty or fifty feet into the air — Allan Nevins & H.S.Commager

legendary may apply to that which undergoes distortion, elaboration, or exaggeration by popular tradition

legendary wonders, such as the Seven Cities which, situated on great heights, had jewel-studded doorways and whole streets of busy goldsmiths — Allan Nevins & H.S.Commager

legendary history reported in the next generation that the elements had been pregnant with auguries: images had sweated; the sky had blazed with meteors — J.A.Froude

mythical suggests quite fanciful or imaginative creation, embellishment, or explanation and implies nonexistence

these ancestors are not creations of the mythical fancy but were once men of flesh and blood — J.G.Frazer

the mythical islands, Antilia, St. Brendan, and the rest, with which map makers had for centuries decorated their maps — G.C.Sellery

apocryphal suggests lack of known authentic source and implies spuriousness or dubiousness about what is described

it is not possible to attach much weight to the Sanson memoirs — they are so plainly apocryphal — Agnes Repplier

tales, possibly apocryphal and certainly embroidered, of his feats of intelligence work in the eastern Mediterranean — R.W.Firth

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.