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

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

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 fable depicts twin sisters on a revenge road trip, seeking to right the wrongs of their early childhood at the behest of their estranged mother and find some catharsis along the way.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026

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

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

Skarsgård adds that the comedy of “Wicker” lets the cast and crew subvert traditional fables and sagas, or even George Bernard Shaw’s classic “Pygmalion” story.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026

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

Likewise, Schoenbrun specializes in zeitgeisty fables about 21st century isolation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 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

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

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

The meeting at Burnham's Downing Street office and residence came after the leaders celebrated bilateral ties with King Charles III at a preview of the fabled Bayeux Tapestry in London on Wednesday.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

The fabled entertainer died after a series of health issues that led her to postpone several performing commitments.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

Lazlo heard it all: the concern and abiding interest they took in the far, fabled city and its mysteries, and with what excitement they had met the news of this visit.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

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

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

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 Bible Stories and Religious Classics by Philip P. Wells

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Related Words

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

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