Definition: Fiction
Etymology
From Middle English ficcioun, from Old French ficcion (“dissimulation, ruse, invention”), from Latin fictiō (“a making, fashioning, a feigning, a rhetorical or legal fiction”), from fingō (“to form, mold, shape, devise, feign”). Displaced native Old English lēasspell (literally “false story”).
Noun
fiction (countable and uncountable, plural fictions)
- Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose.
- the fiction section of the library
- I am a great reader of fiction.
- A verbal or written account that is not based on actual events (often intended to mislead)
- The butler’s account of the crime was pure fiction.
- The company’s accounts contained a number of blatant fictions.
Derived terms
- non-fiction
- science fiction
- speculative fiction
- fiction section
- fictitious
- fictional
Credits
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