fable

American  

[fay-buhl] / ˈfeɪ bəl /

noun

• fables
  plural

1. a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters; apologue: Aesop's fables.

   the fable of the tortoise and the hare;

   Aesop's fables.

2. a story not founded on fact.

   This biography is largely a self-laudatory fable.

3. a story about supernatural or extraordinary persons or incidents; legend.

   the fables of gods and heroes.

4. legends or myths collectively.

   the heroes of Greek fable.

5. an untruth; falsehood.

   This boast of a cure is a medical fable.

6. the plot of an epic, a dramatic poem, or a play.

7. idle talk.

   old wives' fables.

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verb (used without object)

fabled, fabling

1. to tell or write fables.

2. to speak falsely; lie.

   to fable about one's past.

verb (used with object)

fabled, fabling

1. to describe as if actually so; talk about as if true.

   She is fabled to be the natural daughter of a king.

fable British  

/ ˈfeɪbəl /

noun

1. a short moral story, esp one with animals as characters

2. a false, fictitious, or improbable account; fiction or lie

3. a story or legend about supernatural or mythical characters or events

4. legends or myths collectively

5. archaic the plot of a play or of an epic or dramatic poem

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verb

1. to relate or tell (fables)

2. (intr) to speak untruthfully; tell lies

3. (tr) to talk about or describe in the manner of a fable

   ghosts are fabled to appear at midnight

Synonym Usage

See legend.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• fabler
  noun
• outfable
  verb (used with object)
• unfabling
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• fables
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of fable

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English fable, fabel, fabul, from Anglo-French, Old French, from Latin fābula “a story, tale,” equivalent to fā(rī) “to speak” + -bula suffix of instrument

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Explanation

A fable is a moral tale that often features animal characters. “The Tortoise and the Hare” is a well-known fable whose moral is "Slow and steady wins the race." We often associate fables with the master of them all, Aesop. Among the most famous fables attributed to this storyteller of ancient Greece are "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and "The Fox and the Grapes." But like its cousins tale, myth, and legend, the word fable is also used to describe a deliberate fabrication or fiction. In other words, it can be a polite way to describe a lie.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fable fables fabled fabling

But it was 1986’s “A Smoky Mountain Christmas,” Parton’s down-home festive fable, that cemented her as a seasonal favorite.

From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026

The final piece on the album, “Samsara,” is inspired by an ancient Mesopotamian fable about the inevitability of death.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

At some point in childhood, through one classic fable or another, most of us absorb the lesson that looks can be deceiving.

From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2026

What survives in the ashes of McCarthy’s fable is the elemental love that bonds a parent and a child.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

Even if I must be the outcast, cursed by the rules of his hideous fable.

From "Grendel" by John Gardner

The historian’s duty, Mr. Sebag Montefiore writes, is to the facts, “but the fables and myths are important parts of the history too.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

It’s about good versus evil, gods versus monsters — the fables we’ve been telling since the beginning of time, and why they will be with us until the end.

From Salon ● May 19, 2026

That Niall finds Ruben so alluring is natural to Gadd, who believes the notion of a valiant male figure has been bred into everyone via fables and fairy tales.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2026

"The great thing about these movies is that they are like fables," Byron Howard, one of the two directors, told AFP in Los Angeles.

From Barron's ● Nov. 25, 2025

Whereas my father once told stories of historic battles and heroic Xhosa warriors, my mother would enchant us with Xhosa legends and fables that had come down from numberless generations.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

Amid the housing crises, the money crises and the crises of confidence, it’s all about the fabled human connection.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

Coppelia, a Cuban restaurant that’s named after a fabled ice-cream venue in Havana, takes the festive spirit of the island to heart.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

She’s part of the fabled eastern San Fernando Valley Latino political machine, another group of former gatecrashes who assumed the trappings and stylings of the old guard once they assumed power.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026

The result is Australia's fabled foursome now have 607 wickets in Tests in which they have played as a quartet.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

In a storied career oftwenty-three races, through the Triple Crown and virtually every fabled race in the East, no one had ever seen all War Admiral could give.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

If I marry Again sounds like one of those pulpy domestic morals with which the jaded directors are so fond of fabling.

From Time Magazine Archive

Also I wondered what J. Rodney Potts might have to apprehend from the leaven of fact in the fabling of Billy Durgin.

From The Boss of Little Arcady by Harry Leon Wilson

"I think him worthy of the greatest praise for the many new and true observations which he has made, to the disgrace of so many vain and fabling authors."

From A History of Science — Volume 2 by Henry Smith Williams

It confutes, according to Knight's own ideas: it alleges a few scattered facts in favour of astrological productions, which may be picked up in that immensity of fabling which disgraces history.

From Thaumaturgia by An Oxonian

Tell, I pray thee, whence the gloomy spots Upon this body, which below on earth Give rise to talk of Cain in fabling quaint?”

From Curious Myths of the Middle Ages by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

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Related Words

• fantasy
• fiction
• legend
• myth
• parable
• tale
• yarn

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