fabulist
Americannoun
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a person who invents or recounts fables
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a person who lies or falsifies
Etymology
Origin of fabulist
1585–95; < Middle French fabuliste, equivalent to < fābul ( a ) fable + -iste -ist
Explanation
A fabulist is a storyteller. Your uncle who spends holiday gatherings telling stories that end with clear morals is a fabulist, and so is your cousin who invents long, complicated excuses for being late to school every morning. Someone who writes or recites fables — moralistic tales that often feature animals as characters — is one kind of fabulist. The ancient Greek fabulist Aesop, for example, composed many stories about talking animals that ended with important moral lessons. Another kind of fabulist is a person who tells tall tales, or who lies. The root of fabulist is the Old French fable, "lie or pretense," from the Latin fabula, "story, play, or tale," or literally, "that which is told."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“We don’t know what happened between Amy and her mother,” Luck said, before going on to call Acton “a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth.”
From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2026
There is no substantive evidence to support his fabulist conspiratorial delusions-fantasies of persecution and other harm.
From Salon ● May 2, 2024
“Mother Doll” isn’t a ghost story but a meticulously layered tale of fabulist historical fiction where the details of the Russian Revolution are related with the same depth of detail as a trip to Disneyland.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2024
Interviews and a review of public records by The Associated Press suggest this was not likely Smirnov’s first turn in what the government says is a cycle as a fabulist.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 2, 2024
So speaks my friend in the expressive Provençal idiom, rehabilitating the creature so libelled by the fabulist.
From Social Life in the Insect World by Bernard Miall
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
