fiction

n.

1. 1. An imaginative creation or a pretense that does not represent actuality but has been invented.
   2. The act of inventing such a creation or pretense.
2. A lie.
3. 1. A literary work whose content is produced by the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact.
   2. The category of literature comprising works of this kind, including novels and short stories.
4. Law. Something untrue that is intentionally represented as true by the narrator.

[Middle English ficcioun, from Old French fiction, from Latin fictiō, fictiōn-, from fictus, past participle of fingere, to form.]

fictional fic'tion·al adj.
fictionality fic'tion·al'i·ty (-shə-năl'ĭ-tē) n.
fictionally fic'tion·al·ly adv.

WORD HISTORY   To most people "the latest fiction" means the latest novels or stories rather than the most recently invented pretense or latest lie. All three senses of the word fiction point back to its source, Latin fictiō, "the action of shaping, a feigning, that which is feigned." Fictiō in turn was derived from fingere, "to make by shaping, feign, make up or invent a story or excuse." Our first instance of fiction, recorded in a work composed around 1412, was used in the sense "invention of the mind, that which is imaginatively invented." It is not a far step from this meaning to the sense "imaginative literature," first recorded in 1599.

noun

1. An illusory mental image: daydream, dream, fancy, fantasy, figment, illusion, phantasm, phantasma, reverie, vision. See real/imaginary.
2. Any fictitious idea accepted as part of an ideology by an uncritical group; a received idea: creation, fantasy, figment, invention, myth. See belief/unbelief, real/imaginary.
3. An untrue declaration: canard, cock-and-bull story, falsehood, falsity, fib, inveracity, lie², misrepresentation, misstatement, prevarication, story, tale, untruth. Informal fish story, tall tale. Slang whopper. See true/false.
4. A narrative not based on fact: fable, story. See real/imaginary.

n

Definition: made-up story
Antonyms: non-fiction, truth

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fiction, the general term for invented stories, now usually applied to novels, short stories, novellas, romances, fables, and other narrative works in prose, even though most plays and narrative poems are also fictional. The adjective fictitious tends to carry the unfavourable sense of falsehood, whereas ‘fictional’ is more neutral, and the archaic adjective fictive, revived by the poet Wallace Stevens and others, has a more positive sense closer to ‘imaginative’ or ‘inventive’. verb: fictionalize. See also metafiction.

The human propensity for making up stories exposes a strange fact about our minds. Apparently we can become embroiled in the fate of the characters, feel emotions including fear on their behalf or pity or terror, while with one half of our minds we know it is all fictional. It is not only that we do this, but also that we find it important to do it, even when the emotions themselves would normally be unpleasant (see tragedy). Apart from raising this problem, fiction gives rise to purely logical and semantic issues. How do we succeed in referring to fictional character, and is reference the right word when we are representing to ourselves something that does not exist? And what is covered by the idea of truth in fiction, such as the truth that Sherlock Holmes lived in London and not in Paris?

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

An assumption made by a court and embodied in various legal doctrines that a fact or concept is true when in actuality it is not true, or when it is likely to be equally false and true.

A legal fiction is created for the purpose of promoting the ends of justice. A common-law action, for example, allowed a father to bring suit against his daughter's seducer, based on the legal fiction of the loss of her services. Similarly, the law of torts encompasses the legal fiction of the rule of vicarious liability, which renders an employer responsible for the civil wrongs of his or her employees that are committed during their course of employment. Even though the employer generally is uninvolved in the actual act constituting the tort, the law holds the employer responsible since, through a legal fiction, he or she is deemed to be in direct control of the employee's actions. A seller of real estate might, for example, be liable in an action for fraud committed by his or her agent in the course of a sale.

Literature that is a work of the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact. Some examples of modern works of fiction are The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov.

IN BRIEF: A piece of writing about imaginary people and happenings.

Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. — Mark Twain (1835-1910).

Quotes:

"Novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand." - Virginia Woolf

"Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible." - Virginia Woolf

"The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means." - Oscar Wilde

"One should not be too severe on English novels; they are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed." - Oscar Wilde

"There is something else which has the power to awaken us to the truth. It is the works of writers of genius. They give us, in the guise of fiction, something equivalent to the actual density of the real, that density which life offers us every day but which we are unable to grasp because we are amusing ourselves with lies." - Simone Weil

"Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith." - Gore Vidal

See more famous quotes about Fiction

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - skønlitteratur, digtning, fiktion

Nederlands (Dutch)
fictie, verzinsel, het verzinnen/doen alsof

Français (French)
n. - fiction, création de l'imagination, illusion, simulacre, faux-semblant

Deutsch (German)
n. - erzählende Literatur, Erfindung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - φαντασία, μυθιστοριογραφία, μυθιστορήματα

Italiano (Italian)
finzione, narrativa

Português (Portuguese)
n. - ficção (f)

Русский (Russian)
художественная литература, художественное произведение, выдумка, фикция, вымысел

Español (Spanish)
n. - invención, invento, ficción

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - dikt, skönlitteratur, uppdiktande

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
小说, 法律的拟制, 虚构的故事

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 小說, 法律的擬制, 虛構的故事

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 소설, 상상, 허구

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 小説, 作り話, 擬制, 作りごと, 物語

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) خيال , روايه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮רומנים, סיפורת, בדיון, מבדה, פיקציה‬

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