Fictional

How to spell fictional

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce fictional

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fictional mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to or existing only in invented stories rather than in real life.

Fictional in a sentence

• The novel follows a fictional detective who solves crimes in Victorian London.

• The town in the film is entirely fictional and appears on no map.

Where does fictional come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word fictional descends from the Latin verb fingere, which literally meant 'to shape, mould, or fashion', as a potter shapes clay. From its past participle form fictus came the noun fictio, meaning 'a shaping' or 'a feigning', and this passed into English through Old French as 'fiction' during the 1400s to describe invented stories. The adjective fictional, meaning 'belonging to invented narrative', was a much later English formation, appearing in the early 1800s by adding the familiar -al suffix to fiction. The same fingere root quietly survives in the words 'figure', 'effigy', and 'feint', all of which carry the idea of something shaped or pretended. The spelling trap lies in the -tion before -al: writers must remember it ends in -tional, not -shional, even though the sound suggests the latter.

How the word is built

• fict- (from Latin fingere: to shape, form, invent)
• -ion (noun-forming)
• -al (adjective suffix)