Fiction

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈfɪk.ʃən/

Definitions

1. A literary work containing imaginary events and characters rather than being based on real facts
2. A narrative created from imagination rather than actual events or factual accounts
3. Literature or stories invented by the author that depict events and characters that are not real or historically accurate

Etymology: The English word "fiction" once had a native rival: Old English "lēasspell," literally "false story." Middle English speakers borrowed the Latin-derived term instead, taking it through Old French "ficcion," which meant "dissimulation, ruse, invention." The older French sense of pretence was never far from the surface, and for a while the word carried a whiff of deceit. Its Latin ancestor "fictiō" meant "a making, fashioning," and it could describe a legal fiction or a rhetorical feigning as readily as a story. The underlying verb "fingō" meant "to form, mold, shape," so the same root that gives us the idea of shaping clay also gives us the idea of shaping a lie. Close English cousins include "feign," "feint," and "figment," all descended from that busy verb.

Synonyms: novel, story, tale, narrative, fable

Antonyms: nonfiction, fact, reality, truth, history