# fiction

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈfɪk.ʃən/ · frequency rank #3,363

## Definitions
1. Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose.
2. A verbal or written account that is not based on actual events (often intended to mislead).
3. A legal fiction.

## Etymology
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”). Displaced native Old English lēasspell (literally “false story”).

## Easily confused with
- **fission** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fiction-vs-fission)
- **function** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fiction-vs-function)
- **fraction** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fiction-vs-fraction)
- **friction** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fiction-vs-friction)
- **fixation** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fiction-vs-fixation)
- **fictional** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fiction-vs-fictional)
- **faction** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faction-vs-fiction)

## Common misspellings (11)
`fcition`, `ffiction`, `ficction`, `ficiton`, `ficsion`, `fictino`, `fictionn`, `fictoin`, `ficttion`, `fitcion`, `ifction`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/fiction