(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