confabulation

[kuhn-fab-yuh-ley-shuhn]

noun

1. the act of confabulating; conversation; discussion.

   One night, over a beer, Jake and I got into a confabulation on the world and life in general, and Jake's affairs in particular.

2. Psychiatry, Psychology.,  the replacement of a gap in a person's memory by a falsification that they believe to be true.

   The report concluded that while the information elicited under hypnosis may be accurate, it may also include confabulations and pseudomemories.

Other Word Forms

• confabulatory adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of confabulation¹

First recorded in 1490–1500; from Late Latin confabulātiōn- (stem of confābulātiō ) “conversation,” equivalent to confābulāt(us) ( confabulate ) + -iōn- noun suffix; -ion

Example Sentences

For instance, AI sometimes invents sentences or phrases that are not in the original text, potentially creating false information — a phenomenon AI scientists call “hallucination” or “confabulation.”

From Los Angeles Times

Responses to the same query that contained vastly different meanings earned high entropy scores, signaling possible confabulations.

From Science Magazine

A little-studied neurological disorder, confabulation is a memory error that generates false, fabricated, or distorted memories.

From Washington Times

Perhaps Amazon and Riley were emboldened by these examples or energized by the idea of transcending them, because this series has the courage of its confabulations.

From New York Times

Future Western historians and writers, from Aristotle to Marco Polo, scoffed at Ctesias’ confabulations, while grudgingly referencing them as well.

From New York Times