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| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | fictitious story, often ancient |
| Synonyms: | allegory, apologue, creation, delusion, fable, fabrication, fairy story, fancy, fantasy, fiction, figment, folk ballad, folk tale, illusion, imagination, invention, legend, lore, mythos, parable, saga, superstition, tale, tall story, tradition |
| Antonyms: | fact, non-fiction, truth |
| Main Entry: | fable |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | fantasy, story |
| Synonyms: | allegory, apologue, bestiary, bunk, crock, fabrication, fairy story, fairy tale, falsehood, fantasy, fib, fiction, figment, fish story, hogwash, invention, legend, lie, myth, old chestnut, old saw, one for the birds, parable, romance, tale, tall story, untruth, white lie, whopper, yarn |
| Notes: | a fable is a short instructional tale, while a fairytale (or fairy tale) is told as amusement |
| Antonyms: | truth |
| Main Entry: | fabrication |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | lie |
| Synonyms: | artifact, concoction, deceit, fable, fairy story, fake*, falsehood, fib, fiction, figment, forgery, hogwash, invention, jazz, jive, line*, myth, opus, smoke*, song and dance, untruth, work, yarn |
| Antonyms: | truth |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | fiction |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | made-up story |
| Synonyms: | anecdote, best seller, book, cliff-hanger, clothesline, concoction, crock, drama, fable, fabrication, falsehood, fancy, fantasy, fib, figment of imagination, fish story, hooey, imagination, improvisation, invention, legend, lie, misrepresentation, myth, narrative, novel, potboiler, prevarication, romance, smoke*, storytelling, tale, tall story, terminological inexactitude, untruth, whopper, work of imagination, yarn |
| Antonyms: | non-fiction, truth |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | folklore |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | tales from the past |
| Synonyms: | ballad, custom, fable, folk story, legend, myth, mythology, mythos, oral literature, superstition, tradition, wisdom |
| Main Entry: | illusion |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | false appearance; false belief |
| Synonyms: | apparition, bubble*, chimera, confusion, daydream, deception, delusion, déjè vu, error, fallacy, false impression, fancy, fantasy, figment of imagination, fool's paradise, ghost, hallucination, head trip, hocus-pocus, idolism, ignus fatuus, image, invention, make-believe, mirage, misapprehension, misbelief, misconception, misimpression, mockery, myth, optical illusion, paramnesia, phantasm, pipe dream, rainbow*, seeming, semblance, trip*, virtual reality |
| Notes: | allusion is an 'indirect mention,' illusion is 'false impression,' and delusion is 'deception' which is much stronger than illusion an illusion is an image or conception of something actual or real that presents itself to the mind in an abnormal or distorted manner; a delusion is a false belief about oneself or other people that persists despite its being at variance with the facts |
| Antonyms: | certainty, event, fact, reality, truth |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | legend |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | story of the past, often fictitious |
| Synonyms: | fable, fiction, folk story, folk tale, folklore, lore, myth, mythology, mythos, narrative, saga, tale, tradition |
| Main Entry: | lie |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | untruth |
| Synonyms: | aspersion, backbiting, calumniation, calumny, deceit, deception, defamation, detraction, dishonesty, disinformation, distortion, evasion, fable, fabrication, falsehood, falseness, falsification, falsity, fib, fiction, forgery, fraudulence, guile, hyperbole, inaccuracy, invention, libel, mendacity, misrepresentation, misstatement, myth, obloquy, perjury, prevarication, revilement, reviling, slander, subterfuge, tale, tall story, vilification, white lie, whopper |
| Notes: | to lay is to place something; to lie is to recline |
| Antonyms: | honesty, truth |
| Main Entry: | old wives' tale |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | superstition |
| Synonyms: | fairy story, fallacy, false belief, folk tale, folklore, legend, lore, myth, notion, tall story, tall tale |
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
