Vocabulary     

What does fable mean?

Definitions for fable
ˈfeɪ bəlfa·ble

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word fable.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. fabrication, fiction, fablenoun

    a deliberately false or improbable account

  2. fable, parable, allegory, apologuenoun

    a short moral story (often with animal characters)

  3. legend, fablenoun

    a story about mythical or supernatural beings or events

Wiktionary

  1. fablenoun

    A fictitious narration intended to enforce some useful truth or precept, usually with animals, birds etc as characters; an apologue. Prototypically, Aesop's Fables.

  2. fablenoun

    Any story told to excite wonder; common talk; the theme of talk.

  3. fablenoun

    Fiction; untruth; falsehood.

  4. fableverb

    To compose fables; hence, to write or speak fiction ; to write or utter what is not true.

  5. fableverb

    To feign; to invent; to devise, and speak of, as true or real; to tell of falsely.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. FABLEnoun

    Etymology: fable, French; fabula, Latin.

    Jotham’s fable of the bees is the oldest extant, and as beautiful as any made since. Joseph Addison, Spectator.

    Triptolemus, so sung the nine,
    Strew’d plenty from his cart divine;
    But, spite of all those fable makers,
    He never sow’d on Almaign acres. Dryden.

    But refuse profane and old wives fables. 1 Tim. iv. 7.

    The moral is the first business of the poet: this being formed, he contrives such a design or fable as may be most suitable to the moral. John Dryden, Dufresnoy.

    The first thing to be considered in an epick poem is the fable, which is perfect or imperfect, according as the action, which it relates, is more or less so. Joseph Addison, Spectator.

  2. To Fableverb

    To feign; to tell of falsety.

    We mean to win,
    Or turn this heav’n itself into the hell
    Thou fablest. John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. vi. l. 292.

    Ladies of th’ Hesperides, that seem’d
    Fairer than feign’d of old, or fabl’d since
    Of fairy damsels met in forest wide,
    By knights. John Milton, Parad. Lost.

  3. To Fableverb

    Etymology: from the noun.

    That Saturn’s sons receiv’d the three-fold reign
    Of heav’n, of ocean, and deep hell beneath,
    Old poets mention, fabling. Matthew Prior.

    Vain now the tales which fabling poets tell,
    That wav’ring conquest still desires to rove!
    In Marlbro’s camp the goddess knows to dwell. Matthew Prior.

    He fables not: I hear the enemy. William Shakespeare, Henry VI.

Wikipedia

  1. Fable

    Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying. A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind. Conversely, an animal tale specifically includes talking animals as characters. Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished. In the King James Version of the New Testament, "μῦθος" ("mythos") was rendered by the translators as "fable" in the First Epistle to Timothy, the Second Epistle to Timothy, the Epistle to Titus and the First Epistle of Peter.A person who writes fables is a fabulist.

ChatGPT

  1. fable

    A fable is a short fictional story, often featuring animals as characters, that conveys a moral or lesson. Its main purpose is to teach or provide insight on human behavior and ethics. Most fables use simple narratives with universal themes to be easily understood by all ages.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Fablenoun

    a Feigned story or tale, intended to instruct or amuse; a fictitious narration intended to enforce some useful truth or precept; an apologue. See the Note under Apologue

  2. Fablenoun

    the plot, story, or connected series of events, forming the subject of an epic or dramatic poem

  3. Fablenoun

    any story told to excite wonder; common talk; the theme of talk

  4. Fablenoun

    fiction; untruth; falsehood

  5. Fableverb

    to compose fables; hence, to write or speak fiction ; to write or utter what is not true

  6. Fableverb

    to feign; to invent; to devise, and speak of, as true or real; to tell of falsely

  7. Etymology: [F., fr. L. fabula, fr. fari to speak, say. See Ban, and cf. Fabulous, Fame.]

Wikidata

  1. Fable

    Fable is a literary genre. A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to an interpretation of a moral lesson, which may at the end be added explicitly in a pithy maxim. A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech and other powers of humankind. Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished. In the King James Version of the New Testament, "μῦθος" was rendered by the translators as "fable" in First and Second Timothy, in Titus and in First Peter. A person who writes fables is a fabulist.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Fable

    fā′bl, n. a narrative in which things irrational, and sometimes inanimate, are, for the purpose of moral instruction, feigned to act and speak with human interests and passions: any tale in literary form, not necessarily probable in its incidents, intended to instruct or amuse: the plot or series of events in an epic or dramatic poem: a fiction or myth: a ridiculous story, as in 'old wives' fables,' a falsehood: subject of common talk.—v.i. to tell fictitious tales: (obs.) to tell falsehoods.—v.t. to feign: to invent.—p.adj. Fā′bled, mythical.—n. Fā′bler, a writer or narrator of fictions.—adj. Fab′ular.—v.i. Fab′ulīse, to write fables, or to speak in fables.—ns. Fab′ulist, one who invents fables; Fabulos′ity, Fab′ulousness.—adj. Fab′ulous, feigned, false: related in fable: immense, amazing.—adv. Fab′ulously. [Fr. fable—L. fabula, fāri, to speak.]

Suggested Resources

  1. fable

    Song lyrics by fable -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by fable on the Lyrics.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. FABLE

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Fable is ranked #88336 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Fable surname appeared 210 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Fable.

    59.5% or 125 total occurrences were White.
    35.2% or 74 total occurrences were Black.
    2.8% or 6 total occurrences were Asian.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of fable in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of fable in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of fable in a Sentence

  1. Matthew Growney:

    I want people to see that Fable is going to be impactful on a child, there’s so much stuff out there that parents have to assess. With this, they know there is something that will make their children smarter, it’s something that will impact a child’s growth.

  2. Thomas Jefferson:

    The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.

  3. Francis Alys ':

    I had to kind of squeeze it. and it's maybe the reason why the end result is a 'fable'. I stayed within the frame of something that is not a historical approach it's a much more poetic approach. If anything maybe too poetic, within the circumstances. But it's what came out over that short time.

  4. Florence Welch:

    The whole record is a' be careful what you wish for' fable, the monster of the performance heard me : You don't want to tour anymore ? Sit still for a year. How do you feel now ?

  5. Matthew Growney:

    We listened to teachers for feedback on how the tablet was most effective, one thing that teachers loved was that the tablet did not replace physical, hands-on learning. For instance, you can use Fable to design a ‘frog catcher.’ Create the drawing on the tablet, answer questions, give them physical materials like a shoe box and construction paper and then answer an assessment afterward on the tablet. It’s all about digital to physical back to digital. That is really where education is headed from a deployment standpoint.

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Translations for fable

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"fable." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 15 Jan. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/fable>.

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