fiction
/'fikʃn/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun (Uncountable):
- Literature created from imagination: The general category or genre of written works, such as novels and short stories, that describe imaginary people, events, and worlds. It is the opposite of non-fiction.
- Something invented or imagined: An idea, statement, or narrative that is not true or is invented, not necessarily in a literary context.
Noun (Countable):
- A specific invented story or idea: A particular instance of something that is not true.
Examples of Usage
Noun (Uncountable):
- She enjoys reading fiction more than history books.
- The line between fiction and reality is often blurred in his writing.
- His excuse was pure fiction.
Noun (Countable):
- He told a convincing fiction about where he had been.
- The novel is a beautiful fiction about a lost civilization.
Advanced Usage
- "Legal fiction": A factual assumption made by a court to allow a rule or law to operate, even if it is not strictly true. For example, treating a corporation as a "person" in law is a legal fiction.
- The court employed a legal fiction to hear the case.
Variants and Related Words
- Fictional (adjective): Relating to or occurring in fiction; invented.
- The story is set in a fictional town.
- Fictitious (adjective): Not real or true; imaginary or fabricated.
- He used a fictitious name to register.
- Non-fiction (noun): Writing that is based on facts, real events, and real people, such as history or biography.
Synonyms
- Fabrication: Something invented or concocted, often to deceive.
- Invention: Something created by the imagination.
- Novel/Story (for literary works): A long written narrative about imaginary characters and events.
- Figment: An imaginary thing, often used in the phrase "a figment of [one's] imagination."
Related Phrases
- Science fiction: A genre of fiction that imaginatively explores futuristic concepts like advanced science, technology, space exploration, and alien life.
- "Dune" is a classic work of science fiction.
- Historical fiction: A genre where the story is set in the past, blending historical facts with fictional characters or events.
- She writes historical fiction about the Tudor period.
Related Idioms
- "Truth is stranger than fiction": Real events are often more surprising or bizarre than stories that are invented.
- When I heard what really happened, I realized truth is stranger than fiction.
Noun
- a deliberately false or improbable account
- a literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact