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

Anansi’s table was outlined by a snippet of a fable.

From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

This is a film 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

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 stories Eddie had jotted down in his goofy, blocky handwriting, from his own silly creations to the fables Nana used to tell us when we were younger, when she’d come up to visit.

From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia

They’re the fabled duo who first wrapped the arches of this same bridge in straw-colored fabric in 1985.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 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

It isn’t the first time Delta’s fabled operation has faltered.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026

Ronnie O'Sullivan leads John Higgins 6-2 after the opening session of their World Championship last-16 tie but Mark Williams, the other member of snooker's fabled 'Class of 92', was knocked out of the tournament.

From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026

We think that must be the fabled Well of Lightning.

From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

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

A wise old man—I believe he was a bishop—once said he knew "that outside the real world is a world of fine fabling."

From The Boss of Little Arcady by Harry Leon Wilson

The Italian Favellio, parlerie, babil, caquet—Alberti’s “Grand Dictionnaire”—does not wholly convey the idea of our modern Humbug, which combines fabling and caquet.

From Amenities of Literature Consisting of Sketches and Characters of English Literature by Isaac Disraeli

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

Yet, fabling fancy oft shall lead My footsteps to the silver Tweed, Through scenes that I no more must view.

From Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Volume 2 Consisting of Historical and Romantic Ballads, Collected in The Southern Counties of Scotland; with a Few of Modern Date, Founded Upon Local Tradition by Sir Walter Scott

Related Words

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