fable
1 of 2noun
fa·ble ˈfā-bəl 
: a fictitious narrative or statement: such as
a
: a legendary story of supernatural happenings
Minerva is in fables said, from Jove without a mother to proceed
Sir John Davies
Sir John Davies b
: a narration intended to enforce a useful truth
especially : one in which animals speak and act like human beings
The theme of the fable was the folly of human vanity.
c
: falsehood, lie
The story that he won the battle single-handedly is a mere fable.
fable
2 of 2verb
fabled; fabling ˈfā-b(ə-)liŋ
intransitive verb
archaic : to tell fables
transitive verb
: to talk or write about as if true
fabler
ˈfā-b(ə-)lər
noun 
Synonyms
Noun
- allegory
- apologue
- parable
See all Synonyms & Antonyms 
Example Sentences
Noun a fable about busy ants The story that he won the battle single-handedly is a mere fable. He combines fact and fable to make a more interesting story.
Recent Examples on the Web CBS News, 1 Sep. 2022 What unfolds, like a La Fontaine fable, is all the more poignant for its inevitability. Claire Messud, Harper’s Magazine , 20 July 2022 Do each of your animal sculptures evoke a particular fable? Y-jean Mun-delsalle, Forbes, 1 July 2022 The Storyteller,’ a timeless fable, explores the mindset of people who exploit and are exploited. Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 23 May 2022 After this clear-sighted fable, the signature fog that often swirls through Mr. Herzog’s shots descends on his thoughts, and on his prose. Boyd Tonkin, WSJ, 29 July 2022 Indeed, another Pixar film, the medieval adventure Brave, tells a similar fable of mother-daughter friction and animal transformation, but delivers its message clumsily. David Sims, The Atlantic, 9 Mar. 2022 Loyola Marymount University’s summer-long Shakespeare on the Bluff festival continues with the Bard’s fantastical fable about a deposed duke and his young daughter stranded on a magical isle. Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2022 But this appealing if slight fable from director Jim Archer and writers David Earl and Chris Hayward (expanding on their 2017 short by the same name) tugs on a different set of heartstrings. Michael O'sullivan, Washington Post, 15 June 2022 Los Angeles Times, 11 Aug. 2022 Arrebato 4K restoration of Spanish filmmaker Iván Zulueta‘s hallucinatory 1980 horror fable about a director and a heroin addict. Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2021 See More
Noun
The man who oversaw the dissolution of a Cold War superpower (who died this week at age 91) offered a Russian fable to explain his country's fate. CBS News, 1 Sep. 2022 What unfolds, like a La Fontaine fable, is all the more poignant for its inevitability. Claire Messud, Harper’s Magazine , 20 July 2022 Do each of your animal sculptures evoke a particular fable? Y-jean Mun-delsalle, Forbes, 1 July 2022 The Storyteller,’ a timeless fable, explores the mindset of people who exploit and are exploited. Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 23 May 2022 After this clear-sighted fable, the signature fog that often swirls through Mr. Herzog’s shots descends on his thoughts, and on his prose. Boyd Tonkin, WSJ, 29 July 2022 Indeed, another Pixar film, the medieval adventure Brave, tells a similar fable of mother-daughter friction and animal transformation, but delivers its message clumsily. David Sims, The Atlantic, 9 Mar. 2022 Loyola Marymount University’s summer-long Shakespeare on the Bluff festival continues with the Bard’s fantastical fable about a deposed duke and his young daughter stranded on a magical isle. Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2022 But this appealing if slight fable from director Jim Archer and writers David Earl and Chris Hayward (expanding on their 2017 short by the same name) tugs on a different set of heartstrings. Michael O'sullivan, Washington Post, 15 June 2022 Verb
Malcolm McDowell does in Stanley Kubrick’s still-shocking 1971 fable about street thugs in a dystopian Britain. Los Angeles Times, 11 Aug. 2022 Arrebato 4K restoration of Spanish filmmaker Iván Zulueta‘s hallucinatory 1980 horror fable about a director and a heroin addict. Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2021 See More Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English, borrowed from Anglo-French, going back to Latin fābula "talk, gossip, account, tale, legend," from fā-, stem of for, fārī "to speak, say" + -bula, feminine derivative of -bulum, instrumental suffix (going back to Indo-European *-dhlom) — more at ban entry 1
Verb
Middle English fablen, borrowed from Anglo-French fabler, fableier, going back to Latin fābulārī "to talk, converse, invent a story," verbal derivative of fābula "talk, account, fable entry 1"
First Known Use
Noun
14th century, in the meaning defined above
Verb
14th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense
Phrases Containing fable
Kids Definition
fable
noun
fa·ble ˈfā-bəl
1
: a story that is not true
2
: a story in which animals speak and act like people and which is usually meant to teach a lesson
fable
noun
1
as in allegory
a story intended to teach a basic truth or moral about life this classic Christmas film is essentially a fable showing how every person's life has meaning and touches the lives of others Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
- allegory
- parable
- tale
- apologue
- narrative
- mythology
- myth
- bestiary
- beast fable
- legend
- morality play
2
as in myth
a traditional but unfounded story that gives the reason for a current custom, belief, or fact of nature according to an ancient fable the waters of the mountain spring are the tears of a woman weeping for her lost children Synonyms & Similar Words
- myth
- legend
- tale
- story
- allegory
- parable
- mythos
- fiction
- narrative
- fantasy
- saga
- phantasy
- invention
- fabrication
- yarn
- figment
3
as in tale
something that is the product of the imagination the stories of lost cities of gold may have been fables deliberately concocted by Native Americans to dupe the Spanish Synonyms & Similar Words
- tale
- fiction
- story
- fantasy
- novel
- invention
- narrative
- phantasy
- fabrication
- anecdote
- figment
- lie
- misrepresentation
- yarn
- falsehood
- prevarication
- mendacity
- untruth
- fib
- fairy tale
- whopper
- falsity
- make-believe
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- reality
- fact
- materiality
- actuality
- realness
4
as in lie
a statement known by its maker to be untrue and made in order to deceive the fables that people tell themselves to rationalize their failures and shortcomings Synonyms & Similar Words
- tale
- lie
- story
- prevarication
- falsehood
- mendacity
- fib
- fairy tale
- untruth
- whopper
- fabrication
- fiction
- falsity
- tarradiddle
- taradiddle
- exaggeration
- myth
- distortion
- ambiguity
- nonsense
- slander
- defamation
- fraudulence
- libel
- obliquity
- deceit
- equivocation
- half-truth
- canard
- fallacy
- perjury
- misrepresentation
- bluff
- misconception
- jive
- misstatement
- pose
- humbug
- misinformation
- duplicity
- pretense
- falsification
- dishonesty
- pretence
- deceitfulness
- misreport
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- truth
- fact
- truism
- truthfulness
- honesty
- veracity
- confirmation
- verification
- validation
- verity
- authentication
- substantiation