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
Shakil said he passed on the undercover reporter's details to Tanisa without knowing or suspecting that she would offer to fabricate an asylum claim.
From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026
In an announcement Tuesday, Intel said it would work with the companies to “design, fabricate, and package ultra-high-performance chips at scale.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
I learned quickly, however, what I was expected to do with the doll: rock it, fabricate storied situations around it, even sleep with it.
From "The Bluest Eye" 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
Exiled by Astoria to the garage, Hampton fabricates his special drill as the family watches from afar.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2025
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
Nobody knows, but popular imagination with its terrible powers of invention and precision, readily fabricates or welcomes a murderous phrase.
From The French Revolution - Volume 1 by John Durand
The fabricated content appeared on X in posts impersonating legitimate French media outlets and falsely claimed that Attal had Parkinson's disease and that Philippe had contracted an illness.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
His team planted fabricated papers naming the targets in a submerged chest in a Czech lake near the German border before “discovering” them in 1964.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Egypt's Ministry of Interior said the alleged scam involved fabricated scenes in court and impersonating a judge on social media.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
"Because these crystalline membranes can be fabricated over large areas and transferred onto different supports, this approach provides a practical path toward twist-engineered oxide electronics."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026
“Holism,” a fabricated word, has been applied to concepts like the Superorganism.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
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
Meanwhile, the fallout from James Frey’s blockbuster memoir A Million Little Pieces, after he was accused of fabricating elements of his life story, was rippling through the industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Examples include fabricating legal cases or producing images with unrealistic details such as extra fingers.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 5, 2026
Some were in so far over their heads that they resorted to invention, fabricating preposterous stories or quotations out of thin air.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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.
