fiction

fiction

English

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”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: fĭk′-shən, IPA^(key): /ˈfɪk.ʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fic‧tion

• Rhymes: -ɪkʃən

Noun

fiction (countable and uncountable, plural fictions)

1. (literature) Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose.

   I am a great reader of fiction.

   the fiction section of the library

2. A verbal or written account that is not based on actual events (often intended to mislead).

   The company’s accounts contained a number of blatant fictions.

   The butler’s account of the crime was pure fiction.

   separate the fact from the fiction

   • 1963 June, G. Freeman Allen, “The success of diesel-hydraulics on the German Federal Railway”, in Modern Railways, page 390:

     […] in view of the facts—and some fictions—recently circulated in this country about the general performance of high-powered diesel-hydraulics of B.R., […] .

3. (law) A legal fiction.

Synonyms

• fabrication
• figment

Antonyms

• documentary
• fact
• non-fiction
• truth

Hyponyms

• science fiction
• speculative fiction

Derived terms

• airport fiction
• eco-fiction
• encyclopedic fiction
• explanatory fiction
• faan fiction
• faction
• fact is stranger than fiction
• fan-fiction
• fan fiction
• fictional
• fictitious
• flash fiction
• genre fiction
• hard science fiction
• historical fiction
• imaginative fiction
• interactive fiction
• literary fiction
• macro-fiction
• message fiction
• micro-fiction
• non-fiction
• non-mimetic fiction
• paradox of fiction
• pious fiction
• polite fiction
• proto-science fiction
• pulp fiction
• real person fiction
• slash fiction
• soft science fiction
• sudden fiction
• truth is stranger than fiction
• weird fiction
• work of fiction

 

Descendants

• → Irish: ficsean
• → Scottish Gaelic: ficsean

Translations

literary type

Arabic: خَيَال‎ (ar) m (ḵayāl), رِوَايَة‎ (ar) f (riwāya) Belarusian: маста́цкая літарату́ра f (mastáckaja litaratúra), бэлетры́стыка f (beljetrýstyka), кра́снае пісьме́нства n (krásnaje pisʹmjénstva) Bulgarian: белетри́стика (bg) f (beletrístika), худо́жествена литерату́ра f (hudóžestvena literatúra) Catalan: ficció (ca) f Cebuano: handurawat Chinese: Mandarin: 虛構文學／虚构文学 (xūgòu wénxué), (literally, "novels") 小說／小说 (zh) (xiǎoshuō) Czech: beletrie (cs) f Danish: fiktion c, skønlitteratur c Dutch: fictie (nl) f Esperanto: fikcio (eo) Estonian: please add this translation if you can Faroese: skaldskapur Finnish: fiktio (fi), kaunokirjallisuus (fi) French: fiction (fr) f, belles-lettres (fr) f pl Galician: ficción (gl) f German: Fiktion (de) f, Belletristik (de) f Greek: μυθιστόρημα (el) m (mythistórima) Ancient: μυθολογία f (muthología) Hungarian: szépirodalom (hu) Icelandic: skáldskapur m Indonesian: fiksi (id) Irish: ficsean m (uncountable), finscéal m (countable) Italian: finzione (it) f Japanese: フィクション (ja) (fikushon), 小説 (ja) (しょうせつ, shōsetsu) Javanese: dedongèngan Kalmyk: урн зокъял (urn zok’yal) Korean: 소설(小說) (ko) (soseol), 픽션 (piksyeon) Latin: res ficta, fabula (la) f, commentum n Latvian: daiļliteratūra f, beletristika (lv) f Macedonian: белетристика f (beletristika) Malay: cereka (ms), cerita rekaan, fiksyen (ms), fiksi Maori: pakiwaitara, pakimaero Norwegian: Bokmål: fiksjon m, skjønnlitteratur (no) m Nynorsk: fiksjon m, skjønnlitteratur m Occitan: ficcion (oc) f Old English: lēasspell n Persian: داستانی‎ (fa) (dâstâni) Plautdietsch: Romaunschreft f Polish: beletrystyka (pl) f Portuguese: literatura de ficção f, ficção (pt) f, ficcionismo m Romanian: literatură artistică f Russian: худо́жественная литерату́ра (ru) f (xudóžestvennaja literatúra), беллетри́стика (ru) f (belletrístika), фи́кшен (ru) m (fíkšen), фикшн (ru) m (fikšn) Scottish Gaelic: uirsgeul m, ficsean m Slovak: beletria f Spanish: ficción (es) f Swahili: bunilizi Swedish: fiktion (sv) c, skönlitteratur (sv) c Tagalog: kathang-isip, bungang-isip Turkish: kurgu (tr) Ukrainian: худо́жня літерату́ра f (xudóžnja literatúra), белетри́стика (uk) f (beletrýstyka) Welsh: ffuglen (cy) f

invention

Azerbaijani: uydurma (az), qondarma (az) Belarusian: вы́мысел m (výmysjel), вы́думка f (výdumka), фі́кцыя f (fíkcyja) Bulgarian: изми́слица (bg) f (izmíslica) Catalan: ficció (ca) f Czech: fikce (cs) f, výmysl m Danish: fantasi c, opspind Dutch: fictie (nl) f Finnish: sepite (fi), fiktio (fi), taru (fi) French: fiction (fr) f German: Erfindung (de) f Icelandic: uppspuni m, skáldskapur m Macedonian: измислица f (izmislica) Maori: kōrero takuahi Middle English: ficcioun Occitan: ficcion (oc) f Polish: fikcja (pl) f Portuguese: ficção (pt) f, invenção (pt) f, fingimento (pt) m, (colloquial) invencionice f Russian: вы́мысел (ru) m (výmysel), вы́думка (ru) f (výdumka), фи́кция (ru) f (fíkcija) Slovak: výmysel m Spanish: ficción (es) f Tagalog: gawa-gawa Turkish: kurgu (tr) Ukrainian: ви́гадка f (výhadka), фі́кція f (fíkcija), ви́мисел m (výmysel), ви́гад m (výhad)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Esperanto: (please verify) fikcio (eo) French: (please verify) fiction (fr) f

Further reading

• fiction in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• fiction in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• fiction at OneLook Dictionary Search
• "fiction" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 134.

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French

Etymology

From Old French, borrowed from Latin fictionem (nominative of fictio).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fik.sjɔ̃/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

fiction f (plural fictions)

1. fiction

Related terms

• fictif
• science-fiction

Further reading

• “fiction”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.