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• Truth is stranger than fiction
  Truth is stranger than fiction

  Sometimes what actually happens is more bizarre than anything that could have been imagined.
• truth is stranger than fiction
  truth is stranger than fiction

  Real life can be more remarkable than invented tales, as in In our two-month trip around the world we ran into long-lost relatives on three separate occasions, proving that truth is stranger than fiction. This expression may have been invented by Byron, who used it in Don Juan (1833).

Truth is stranger than fiction

Cultural  

1. Sometimes what actually happens is more bizarre than anything that could have been imagined.

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truth is stranger than fiction Idioms  

1. Real life can be more remarkable than invented tales, as in In our two-month trip around the world we ran into long-lost relatives on three separate occasions, proving that truth is stranger than fiction. This expression may have been invented by Byron, who used it in Don Juan (1833).

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Example Sentences

But, as they say, truth is stranger than fiction and viewers won’t soon forget the film’s devastating conclusion.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 12, 2025

When truth is stranger than fiction, it is often easier to disbelieve, at least until the facts make it impossible to ignore reality.

From Salon • Jan. 24, 2024

If you don’t believe that truth is stranger than fiction, it’s time for you to learn about the Isaiah Silva vs.

From Slate • Jun. 1, 2018

It’s the sense that truth is stranger than fiction, and that seemed right for us to play with.

From New York Times • Nov. 3, 2015

In the study of animals, we have long insisted that to the open eye and the thinking brain, truth is stranger than fiction.

From The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals A Book of Personal Observations by Hornaday, William Temple