fic·tion 
(fĭkshən)
(fĭkshən)n.
1.
a. The category of literature, drama, film, or other creative work whose content is imagined and is not necessarily based on fact.
b. Works in this category: the fiction of Virginia Woolf.
c. A work within this category: the shorter fictions of Faulkner.
2.
a. Narrative, explanatory material, or belief that is not true or has been imagined or fabricated: The notion that he was at the scene of the crime is pure fiction.
b. A narrative, explanation, or belief that may seem true but is false or fabricated: "Neutrality is a fiction in an unneutral world" (Howard Zinn).
3. Law A verbal contrivance that is in some sense inaccurate but that accomplishes a purpose, as in the treatment of husband and wife as one person or a corporation as an entity.
[Middle English ficcioun, from Old French fiction, from Latin fictiō, fictiōn-, from fictus, past participle of fingere, to form; see dheigh- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
fiction·al adj.
fic′tion·ali·ty (-shə-nălĭ-tē) n.
fiction·al·ly adv.