The action of devising, contriving, or making up; contrivance, fabrication.

Invention, excogitation; fictitious invention, fiction. Now only poetic. Formerly also with more reproachful sense: †Deception, lying; a…

The action of ‘feigning’ or inventing imaginary incidents, existences, states of things, etc., whether for the purpose of deception or otherwise.

As a mass noun: the action of concocting extravagant falsehoods; wild exaggeration, speculation, or fantasy.

In bad sense: The action of fabricating or ‘making up’; the invention (of a statement); the forging (of a document). Also concrete. An invention; a…

figurative and in figurative contexts. Esp. in (made, cut, manufactured,etc.) out of (the) whole cloth. colloquial (chiefly North American). Used…

The elaborate or ingenious composition, or making up (of a story, plot, scheme) to suit a purpose.