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FICTION
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("fiction" is a kind of...):
literary composition; literary work (imaginative or creative writing)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fiction"):
dystopia (a work of fiction describing an imaginary place where life is extremely bad because of deprivation or oppression or terror)
novel (an extended fictional work in prose; usually in the form of a story)
fantasy; phantasy (fiction with a large amount of imagination in it)
story (a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events)
utopia (a work of fiction describing a utopia)
Derivation:
fictional (related to or involving literary fiction)
fictionalize (make into fiction)
fictitious (formed or conceived by the imagination)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A deliberately false or improbable account
Synonyms:
fable; fabrication; fiction
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("fiction" is a kind of...):
falsehood; falsity; untruth (a false statement)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fiction"):
canard (a deliberately misleading fabrication)
Derivation:
fictional (formed or conceived by the imagination)
fictionalize (make into fiction)
fictitious (adopted in order to deceive)
Context examples:
If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He decided that if he had it to do over again he would confine himself to fiction.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
This was my third work of fiction.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Quite true, Hump, quite true. I have no fictions that make for nobility and manhood.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
If, therefore, the authorship of other works of fiction has been attributed to me, an honour is awarded where it is not merited; and consequently, denied where it is justly due.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Just then she was both, for it was perfectly evident from the knowing glances exchanged among the gentlemen that her little fiction of 'my friend' was considered a good joke, and a laugh, produced by some inaudible remark of the editor, as he closed the door, completed her discomfiture.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Don't tell me that they have not dreamed the dream and attempted to write poetry or fiction; for they have, and they have failed.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
The Orfling met me here sometimes, to be told some astonishing fictions respecting the wharves and the Tower; of which I can say no more than that I hope I believed them myself.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
“I have neither aptitude nor inclination for fiction.”
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Blanche Ingram, after having repelled, by supercilious taciturnity, some efforts of Mrs. Dent and Mrs. Eshton to draw her into conversation, had first murmured over some sentimental tunes and airs on the piano, and then, having fetched a novel from the library, had flung herself in haughty listlessness on a sofa, and prepared to beguile, by the spell of fiction, the tedious hours of absence.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
