Definition: Fiction

From New World Encyclopedia

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)

  1. 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.
  2. 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

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