pulp fiction
Americannoun
Usage
What is pulp fiction? Pulp fiction refers to a genre of racy, action-based stories published in cheaply printed magazines from around 1900 to the 1950s, mostly in the United States. Pulp fiction gets its name from the paper it was printed on. Magazines featuring such stories were typically published using cheap, ragged-edged paper made from wood pulp. These magazines were sometimes called pulps. Pulp fiction created a breeding ground for new and exciting genres. Though the heyday of pulp fiction magazines has passed, their eye-catching covers and dramatic, fast-paced, and simple stories have left behind a legacy that can be seen in today’s movies, TV, books, and comics featuring action heroes and over-the-top villains.
Etymology
Origin of pulp fiction
An Americanism dating back to 1950–55
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.
“Black Doves” is set in a pulp fiction version of England where everyone is hiding something and no one fully trusts anybody — a place where information is currency and people survive on guile.
From New York Times • Dec. 4, 2024
The villains seem to have sprung from the pages of cheap graphic novels that make pulp fiction look like Shakespeare.
From Salon • Sep. 7, 2023
A photograph of a dearly departed customer sits framed on one wall overlooking the shelves of pulp fiction paperbacks that he both contributed to and read from for decades.
From Seattle Times • May 25, 2023
The first volume of Library of America's “The Future Is Female” series collected science-fiction stories penned by women from the era of pulp fiction to the year of the moon landing.
From Scientific American • Oct. 15, 2022
Transcriber's Note: This book is an example of early pulp fiction.
From The Dock Rats of New York by Halsey, Harlan Page
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.
