FICTION • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Fiction

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/fˈɪkʃən/ Listen

noun

Fiction n.

1.

The act of feigning, inventing, or imagining; as, by a mere fiction of the mind.

2.

That which is feigned, invented, or imagined; especially, a feigned or invented story, whether oral or written. Hence: A story told in order to deceive; a fabrication; opposed to fact, or reality. "The fiction of those golden apples kept by a dragon." "When it could no longer be denied that her flight had been voluntary, numerous fictions were invented to account for it."

3.

Fictitious literature; comprehensively, all works of imagination; specifically, novels and romances. "The office of fiction as a vehicle of instruction and moral elevation has been recognized by most if not all great educators."

4.

(Law) An assumption of a possible thing as a fact, irrespective of the question of its truth.

5.

Any like assumption made for convenience, as for passing more rapidly over what is not disputed, and arriving at points really at issue.

Synonyms: Fabrication; invention; fable; falsehood. Fiction, Fabrication. Fiction is opposed to what is real; fabrication to what is true. Fiction is designed commonly to amuse, and sometimes to instruct; a fabrication is always intended to mislead and deceive. In the novels of Sir Walter Scott we have fiction of the highest order. The poems of Ossian, so called, were chiefly fabrications by Macpherson.

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Etymology of 'Fiction'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fiction" Quotes from Famous Books

... British and American line had run near it during the war; it had, therefore, been the scene of marauding and infested with refugees, cowboys, and all kinds of border chivalry. Just sufficient time had elapsed to enable each storyteller to dress up his tale with a little becoming fiction, and, in the indistinctness of his recollection, to make himself the hero of ...

— The Legend of Sleepy Hollow • Washington Irving

... boy's mind is the worst of my pieces of work. I have made him too refined for one class, and left him too rough for another—discontented with his station, and too desultory and insubordinate to rise, nobleness of nature turning to arrogance, fact and fiction all mixed up together. It would be a study, if one was ...

— Dynevor Terrace (Vol. I) - or, The Clue of Life • Charlotte M. Yonge

... imagine the airs of broad-blown impudence which are sometimes assumed by ignorant and stupid boors who have been endowed with a license; and assuredly no one would guess the extent of their political power unless he had something to do with election business. The landlord of fiction hardly exists in the quiet towns; there is seldom a smiling, suave, and fawning Boniface to be seen; the influential drink-seller is often an insolent familiar harpy who will speak of his own member of Parliament as "Old Tom," and who airily ventures ...

— Side Lights • James Runciman

... questions, and was an absolutely fearless writer, audacious and independent, so that he twice suffered imprisonment for his daring. The immortal "Robinson Crusoe" was published on April 25, 1719. Defoe was already fifty-eight years of age. It was the first English work of fiction that represented the men and manners of its own time as they were. It appeared in several parts, and the first part, which is here epitomised, was so successful that no fewer than four editions were printed in as many months. "Robinson Crusoe" was widely pirated, and its authorship gave rise to ...

— The World's Greatest Books, Vol III • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.

... There's my contest! I had urgent business in Ireland, and she 's a good woman, always willing to let me go. I count on her kindness, there 's no mightier compliment to one's wife. She'll know it when it's history. She's fond of history. Ay, she hates fiction, and so I'm proud to tell her I offer her none. She likes a trifling surprise too, and there she has it. Oh! we can whip up the business to a nice little bowl of froth-flummery. But it's when the Parliamentary voting is on comes the connubial pull. She's ...

— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

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