fabricate
Americanverb (used with object)
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fabricates,
present (3rd person singular)
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fabricated,
past participle, past
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fabricating
present participle
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to make by art or skill and labor; construct.
The finest craftspeople fabricated this clock.
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to make by assembling parts or sections.
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to devise or invent (a legend, lie, etc.).
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to fake; forge (a document, signature, etc.).
verb
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to make, build, or construct
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to devise, invent, or concoct (a story, lie, etc)
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to fake or forge
Synonym Usage
See manufacture.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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fabricatesimple
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fabricatessimple
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have fabricatedperfect
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has fabricatedperfect
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am fabricatingprogressive
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are fabricatingprogressive
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is fabricatingprogressive
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have been fabricatingperfect progressive
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has been fabricatingperfect progressive
Past
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fabricatedsimple
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had fabricatedperfect
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was fabricatingprogressive
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were fabricatingprogressive
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had been fabricatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fabricate
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin fabricātus “made,” past participle of fabricāre; see fabric, -ate 1
Explanation
Do you like to construct mini airplanes from kits? Work on an assembly line? Piece together Ikea furniture? Then you certainly know how to fabricate, or to put together, things. While fabricate might mean the physical act of construction, it can also mean constructing a falsehood. Watch out — those well versed in the art of fabrication might have an ulterior motive. In the movies, the bad cops sometimes fabricate evidence to make the good guy look guilty. When you tell the teacher the dog ate your homework, you’ve fabricated a pretty silly excuse. So if you’re going to fabricate the truth, get some better material!
Vocabulary lists containing fabricate
Advanced English Words
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Fake It 'Til You Make It: Synonyms for "False"
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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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.
See Examples For:
"This nonequilibrium fabrication approach enables us to fabricate materials from alloy vapor to a solid, introducing a significant number of dislocations in CoAl," Zhang said.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026
AI models “hallucinate,” meaning they routinely fabricate information, without any sign that the answers could be made up.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026
Andrew Glazer, director of the documentary on the 2018 disappearances, told AFP that Ramos is accused of paying actors to fabricate allegations against the military.
From Barron's ● May 14, 2026
“Lila is complicated, to say the least. She has a great tendency to mythologize her life—not fabricate, and there’s a difference.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
Little by little he remembered fewer and fewer of the details, until finally he had to imagine them, even fabricate them, guess what they must have been.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, fabricates roughly 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductor chips.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
Now his custom-made creations, which he designs and fabricates after work in his garage in Port Chester, N.Y., are featured in those same lowrider magazines.
From New York Times ● May 19, 2024
To print a new material from scratch, one must typically set up to 100 parameters in software that controls how the printer will extrude the material as it fabricates an object.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 8, 2024
However, Javi grossly fabricates his role in all of this and enjoys the rewards until they blow up in his face.
From Salon ● Mar. 30, 2024
He fabricates, out of the refuse of the blood, that bile which is so valuable in the economy of the human frame.
From The History of a Mouthful of Bread And its effect on the organization of men and animals by Jean Macé
A7 hasn’t commented on the hack, although a Shor-backed political group hit by the hack has said the leaked documents included fabricated conversations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
Prosecutors argued its highly-detailed contents could be corroborated to an extent unlikely with a fabricated confession.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
These studies may contain reused text, unusual or awkward language, and fabricated data or images.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 16, 2026
Four of the clients said they fabricated their claims, which the firm later withdrew.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
His alibi—that he was with another woman—checked out, and it became clear that the forger who had implicated Brown had fabricated his story hoping to bargain with prosecutors for better prison conditions.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
These include cases in which the men were exonerated through DNA or blood evidence and others in which police are accused of fabricating evidence.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
He became embarrassed after he was caught fabricating or embellishing stories about playing college baseball, responding to protest scenes and an award he won in the police academy, according to the motion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
Santos, who was elected as a Republican from a New York district, is known for fabricating his life story to win public office and was expelled from the House in 2023.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Bristol surgeon Tony Dixon was removed from the medical register last year for serious misconduct, including performing unnecessary surgeries, using surgical mesh to treat bowl complaints without patient's informed consent, and fabricating patient records.
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2026
We sent photographs of humans from all over the world caring for one another, learning, fabricating tools and art and responding to challenges.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
