figment

American  

[fig-muhnt] / ˈfɪg mənt /

noun

figments plural

1. a mere product of mental invention; a fantastic notion.

   The noises in the attic were just a figment of his imagination.

2. a feigned, invented, or imagined story, theory, etc..

   biographical and historical figments.

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figment British  

/ ˈfɪɡmənt /

noun

1. a fantastic notion, invention, or fabrication

   a figment of the imagination

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Synonym Usage

See fiction.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• figments
  plural

Etymology

Origin of figment

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin figmentum “something made or feigned,” equivalent to fig- (base of fingere “to mold, feign”) + -mentum -ment; see fiction ( def. )

Explanation

When something is a figment of your imagination, it means that you made it up. It's something that might seem real, but is really not. What does a fig- (not the fruit fig) have to do with something made up inside your head? It has to do with Latin, as usual — both figment and fiction derive from the same Latin word. But it might help to think of figment as a fig leaf — a figment is something flimsy and easily blown away.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

figment figments

Oddly, she appears as a sort of confidante with whom Odysseus speaks at intervals, and might be a figment of his imagination.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

As Kunimoto says, private-fund valuations are often “a figment of imagination.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025

Who knows, maybe the daughter is a figment of her imagination too, though I don’t think the movie supports such a reading.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2025

At the time, the threat from Hamilton was so distant as to be almost a figment of the imagination.

From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2025

Sometimes I try hard to believe Dad's right about me imagining stuff, and that's all Miss Willis was—a figment of my imagination.

From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn

We meet them before we meet Sally and Theo, and whether they are figments or not, they are unmistakably haunting the new occupant who’s writing about them.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2026

In many ways, these trademarks have become figments of individuals’ identity.

From Slate ● Feb. 13, 2024

But that's the issue, we have fictionalized a real-life relationship with our very own elusive figments of our imagination.

From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2023

But its various figments and narratives had merged, as such poppycock tends to do, with an older and homegrown genre of German extremism.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 9, 2022

Suppose all of these houses aren’t real at all, this bed not real, but only figments of my own imagination, given substance by telepathy and hypnosis through the Martians, thought Captain John Black.

From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury

Related Words

• daydream