fiction
fic·tion/ˈfɪkʃən/noun
fiction is spelled F-I-C-T-I-O-N: 7 letters and 2 syllables (fic·tion). It appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,364th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, fiction means “Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of fiction is fictions.
How many letters and syllables are in fiction?
| Letters | 7: F-I-C-T-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: fic·tion |
| In writing | 28 times per million words; the 3,364th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is fiction?
Fiction appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,364th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce fiction?
- /ˈfɪkʃən/
- [ˈfɪkʃən] ~ [ˈfɪkʃn̩]
Fiction has 2 syllables, split fic·tion in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-fiction.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with fiction
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of fiction
- fictions plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does fiction mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose.
I am a great reader of fiction.
- 2
A verbal or written account that is not based on actual events (often intended to mislead); an untrue belief.
The company’s accounts contained a number of blatant fictions.
- 3
A legal fiction.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate fiction?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of fiction: fi.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Fiction in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | fiction, belles-lettres |
| German | Fiktion, Belletristik , Erfindung |
| Portuguese | literatura de ficção, ficção, ficcionismo , invenção, fingimento |
| Spanish | ficción |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does fiction come from?
From Middle English ficcioun, from Old French ficcion (“dissimulation, ruse, invention”), from Latin fictiō (“a making, fashioning, a feigning, a rhetorical or legal fiction”), from fingō (“to form, mold, shape, devise, feign”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).