fictionalize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fictionalize
First recorded in 1920–25; fictional ( def. ) + -ize
Explanation
To fictionalize is to take a true story and change the details so it's not literally accurate. When you write your first novel, you might simply fictionalize the family tales your grandparents have told you. When you fictionalize something, you transform a factual story into fiction. A lot of writers use this technique to turn their own experiences and real people they know into interesting stories. If you're writing a story for school about the time your friend forged a note from his mom to excuse his absence, you might decide to fictionalize him so he doesn't get in trouble. Fictionalize comes from a Latin root, fingere, "to shape or form."
Vocabulary lists containing fictionalize
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:
Shadows of Spielberg’s filmography loom large over “Disclosure Day”: the inclination to revisit and fictionalize childhood from “The Fabelmans,” the tests of empathy in “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” and, of course, all the aliens.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
“I was very excited to pick it apart and figure out what we wanted to fictionalize to push this story forward,” he said.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 4, 2022
Seeking to cover 16 years in little more than two hours, they condense or flat-out fictionalize with a wink.
From New York Times ● Nov. 17, 2021
I have disagreed with many of the attempts to question her right to fictionalize Mexico’s predicament simply because she long identified as white.
From Slate ● Jan. 31, 2020
It was a means by which, if not to erase or delete memory, to splice it, to fictionalize it, and to some degree begin again; and yet he judged consciousness to be even less real.
From An Apostate: Nawin of Thais by Steven (Steven David Justin) Sills
“Bridgerton” is set in a fictionalized version of Regency England, filled with grand balls and regal social dances, and its movement is all about subtlety.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Prosecutors allege that Matar was motivated by a fatwa that Ayatollah Khomeini, then leader of Iran, issued in 1989 following Rushdie's depiction of a fictionalized Prophet Muhammad in his novel "The Satanic Verses."
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Mr. Pynchon, a descendant of the colonial family fictionalized in “The House of the Seven Gables,” infuses his chronicle with a modern sense of paranoia and a taste for countercultural heresies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
“If the public is unable to distinguish between actual threats to biodiversity and fictionalized narratives, the perceived urgency to act may diminish,” the researchers wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2026
Mother tells me you have given up on the tribal art book and are pleased with this one, a sort of fictionalized travelogue?
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The narrator decides to write a novel fictionalizing the surveyor’s account, shame be damned—“And yet, let them scorn me as they will, strong traits of their nature have intertwined themselves with mine.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
It also drew a blank when asked for a speech from George Santos, the New York Republican congressman who was caught fictionalizing his past.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 6, 2023
And it’s uncommon for producers to involve the people whose lives they are fictionalizing.
From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2023
And also my conflicted feelings about what I was doing with Hana's story in fictionalizing it, and about mythologizing my father on the page.
From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2022
“By fictionalizing away my innocence, my total lack of involvement, by erasing the role of the authorities in my wrongful conviction, McCarthy reinforces an image of me as a guilty and untrustworthy person,” Knox wrote.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 30, 2021
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.
