as in fictitious
not real and existing only in the imagination
the events in the horror movie seemed so real to some fans that they could not believe that the whole thing was fictional
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Recent Examples of fictional
In the film, Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami are the singing voices of fictional K-pop girl group Huntr/x, performing the roles of Rumi, Mira, and Zoey respectively.
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Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 9 Jan. 2026
The show follows frontline workers at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, with each episode covering an hour of an emergency room shift.
—Madeline Bartos, CBS News, 8 Jan. 2026
The Connecticut governor who served the shortest time was Hiram Bingham III, a remarkable figure who might have served as inspiration for the fictional Indiana Jones.
—Stephen Busemeyer, Hartford Courant, 5 Jan. 2026
How does your experience of coming out as a young adult under the spotlight parallel the fears Will feels in this fictional world populated by monsters?
—Senior Television, Los Angeles Times, 1 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for fictional
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fictional
Adjective
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Anyone who’s survived to 2026 knows the upper class’ fictitious fantasies still carry real, wretched consequences for the rest of us, but Season 4 plays out those ongoing scenarios to the nth degree, while condensing them into an appreciable narrative arc.—
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The series, which premiered on Netflix at the end of 2024, tells the story of the Buendía family over multiple generations and is set in the fictitious town of Macondo, Colombia, which the family founded.—
Adjective
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As players shoot around, Jake cradles a ball before blowing past an imaginary defender to hammer home a dunk.—
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At the opening, Natalie, bored and filled with loathing for her parents, flees her family home by retreating into imaginary worlds of vivid, eroticized violence.—
Adjective
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The repetition of that mythic version has buttressed the belief that the fight for American independence was an event somehow separate from world history.—
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That was a really great mythic take.—
Adjective
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Taken together, the books on this list show narrators real and imagined grappling with some of life’s greatest challenges, and nevertheless surviving—as timely and valuable a message as readers can ask for.—
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Prompted by Einstein, the noncompliant witnesses in the 1950s reshaped the public discussion, refocusing the conversation on the importance of freedom of expression rather than the fears of imagined communist infiltration.—
Cite this Entry
“Fictional.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fictional. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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