Synonyms

poetic license

American

noun

license or liberty taken by a poet, prose writer, or other artist in deviating from rule, conventional form, logic, or fact, in order to produce a desired effect.

poetic license Idioms

Also, artistic license. The liberty taken by a writer or artist in deviating from conventional form or fact to achieve an effect. For example, I've never seen grass or a tree of that color; but that's artistic license. [Late 1700s]

Etymology

Origin of poetic license

First recorded in 1780–90

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:

poetic license

Rachel Syme’s foreword to the musical book says that this version of “Ironic” turns it into “an inside joke about poetic license and grammatical errors.”

From Salon ● Nov. 29, 2024

“Bedewed it with his tears and bid to it an everlasting adieu” is the stuff of poetic license and bad poetry.

From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2024

The language of burning is poetic license, or should be: No one wants to eat rice that’s actually been burned.

From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2021

What a fraught act of poetic license, and it won’t be the last in this surprising novel about the plight of displaced people.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 26, 2021

This second meaning we owe to the poetic license of Mr. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose famous poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner contained just such a creature.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023