fiction

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

Borrowed from Old French ficcion (“dissimulation, ruse, invention”), from Latin fictionem, accusative of fictio (“a making, fashioning, a feigning, a rhetorical or legal fiction”), from fingere (“to form, mold, shape, devise, feign”).

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fic‧tion

• Rhymes: -ɪkʃən

Noun

fiction (countable and uncountable, plural fictions)

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

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

   I am a great reader of fiction.

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

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

3. (law) A legal fiction.

Synonyms

• fabrication
• figment

Antonyms

• documentary
• fact
• non-fiction
• truth

Hypernyms

• literary type

Hyponyms

• science fiction
• speculative fiction

Derived terms

• fictitious
• fictional
• non-fiction

Related terms

• fiction section

Translations

literary type

• Arabic: خَيَال (ar) m (ḵayāl), رِوَايَة (ar) f (riwāya)
• Bulgarian: белетристика (bg) f (beletristika)
• Catalan: ficció (ca) f
• Cebuano: handurawat
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 虛構文學／虚构文学 (xūgòu wénxué), 虚构文学 (xūgòu wénxué), (literally, "novels") 小說／小说 (zh), 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
• Galician: ficción (gl) f
• German: Fiktion (de) f, Belletristik (de) f
• Greek: μυθιστόρημα (el) m (mythistórima)

  Ancient: μυθολογία f (muthología)

• Icelandic: skáldskapur m
• Irish: ficsean m (uncountable), finscéal m (countable)
• Italian: finzione (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: フィクション (ja) (fikushon)
• Javanese: dedongèngan
• Kalmyk: урн зокъял (urn zokʺyal)
• Korean: 소설 (ko) (soseol)
• 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

• Persian: داستانی (fa) (dâstâni)
• Portuguese: literatura de ficção f, ficção (pt) f, ficcionismo m
• Russian: худо́жественная литерату́ра (ru) f (xudóžestvennaja literatúra), беллетри́стика (ru) f (belletrístika)
• Scottish Gaelic: uirsgeul m, ficsean m
• Spanish: ficción (es) f
• Swedish: fiktion (sv) c, skönlitteratur (sv) c
• Tagalog: kathang-isip, bungang-isip
• Turkish: kurgu (tr)
• Welsh: ffuglen (cy) f

invention

• Bulgarian: измислица (bg) f (izmislica)
• Catalan: ficció (ca) f
• Czech: fikce f
• 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
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Macedonian: измислица f pl (izmislica)
• Maori: kōrero takuahi
• 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)
• Spanish: ficción (es) f
• Tagalog: gawa-gawa
• Turkish: kurgu (tr)

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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: ^{(please verify)} fiction (fr) f

Further reading

• “fiction”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “fiction”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “fiction”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• "fiction" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 134.

---

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.