fable

American  

[fey-buhl] / ˈfeɪ bəl /

noun

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.

---

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

---

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

Related Words

See legend.

Other Word Forms

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

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

Example Sentences

A fable of self-erasure plays out, elegantly translated by Sasha Dugdale.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 2026

I will get images for scenes before I know what the actual scene is, and it’ll be almost more of like a symbolic image, or it’ll be a fable that I’ve heard before.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 17, 2026

The 2026 Oscar-nominated animated shorts mix the past and the present, fable and nonfiction.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 16, 2026

Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare” teaches the idea that slow and steady wins the race.

From Barron's • Jan. 9, 2026

Like pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among the inward parts of some granitic beast.

From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

Related Words

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