fable

American  

[fey-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

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

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

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

France President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to "a great artist who transformed an Iranian childhood into a universal fable".

From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026

Wygodny has written original music to subtly accompany Booth’s fable, lending the emotional subtext at points a penumbra of cello.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026

It doesn’t lose its way, yet doesn’t feel entirely confined to one place — a critical component that allows “Is God Is” to play like a modern biblical fable.

From Salon ● May 19, 2026

Her misunderstanding would have been comic had we read of it in a romantic fable.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

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

Interlaced with the prosaic reflections are a series of fables involving inhabitants from the present and past.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025

"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

The Laguna Beach space, a 1,000-square-foot love letter to fairy tales, is a fantastical, mystical wonderland, where fables of lost love, ghostly pets and irresistible avarice are told via miniature installations and ornate, storybook art.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2025

There’s artwork on the wall, done by the kids; posters with tiny kittens “hanging in there”; and a small bookcase with an impressive collection of fables and fairy tales.

From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold

WETZLAR, Germany—When Andreas Kaufmann used his inheritance to buy Leica, the fabled camera maker was close to bankruptcy, with new digital technology putting it at risk of extinction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026

As its small cast obsesses over a fabled alien encounter and seems willing to stop at nothing to find release in a divine being, be careful, “The Pineapple” argues, of the personal Eden you seek.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

Shaun Edwards' departure from France's national team is being negotiated, with the fabled defence coach set to be without a role a year out from the Rugby World Cup.

From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026

Soaring ticket prices and extra security for US President Donald Trump do not alter the electric energy of fabled Madison Square Garden as it hosts games three and four of the NBA Finals.

From Barron's ● Jun. 8, 2026

That trip was relatively uneventful, but in 1845, hoping finally to discover the fabled Northwest Passage, Franklin made the mistake of returning to the Arctic for a third time.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

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

With thy fabling and thy reasoning, i-wis,      I am beguiled; but I have known thee ere this:      Art not Celestine, that dwelleth by the river side?

From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 1 by William Carew Hazlitt

And yet, fair bow, no fabling dreams, But words of the Most High, Have told why first thy robe of beams Was woven in the sky.

From The Home Book of Verse — Volume 3 by Burton Egbert Stevenson

But of that cathedral nothing is now left but a heap of fragments, and a stone, on which, fabling tradition says, Henry II. was reconciled to the Church after the murder of Becket.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 105, July 1866 by Various

"But 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 Moon Lore by Timothy Harley

Related Words

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