poetic licence

British

noun

justifiable departure from conventional rules of form, fact, logic, etc, as in poetry

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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poetic licence

He wouldn't elaborate about any poetic licence being taken in the movie.

From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026

You're in for a treat if you like your period drama served with lashings of schoolboy history, a few large dollops of poetic licence, and tastefully presented by someone wearing a comfy cashmere cardy.

From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2017

Ah, no, he says, that is simply more poetic licence.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 28, 2016

“There is a certain amount of poetic licence in the film,” he says with a smile.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 28, 2016

In the mythical portions of his dialogues Plato uses the gods as a given poetic motive and treats them with poetic licence.

From Atheism in Pagan Antiquity by Ingeborg Andersen

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