fictitious
- Adjective:
- Not real or true; invented or imagined: Used to describe something that is created by the imagination and does not exist in reality.
- Adopted in order to deceive; false: Used to describe something that is assumed or pretended, often to conceal the truth.
Describing something invented:
- The story is set in a fictitious town that doesn't appear on any map.
- All the characters in the novel are fictitious.
Describing something false or assumed:
- He used a fictitious name when checking into the hotel.
- The company was found to have fictitious assets on its balance sheet.
"fictitious character": A person who exists only in a story, play, or film.
- Sherlock Holmes is one of the most famous fictitious characters in literature.
"fictitious force" (Physics): In a non-inertial frame of reference, a force that appears to act on a mass but is a consequence of the frame's acceleration (e.g., centrifugal force).
- The Coriolis effect is often described as a fictitious force.
Fiction (n): Literature in the form of prose, especially novels, that describes imaginary events and people. Also, something that is invented or untrue.
- She writes science fiction.
Fictional (adj): Relating to or occurring in fiction; invented for a story.
- The fictional world of the book is richly detailed.
- (Note: 'Fictional' is often interchangeable with 'fictitious' for invented things, but 'fictitious' is more commonly used for things that are deceitfully false.)
Fictive (adj): Created by the imagination; not real. (A more formal synonym).
- The artist works with fictive landscapes.
- Imaginary: Existing only in the imagination.
- Fabricated: Invented, typically with deceitful intent.
- False: Not according to truth or fact; incorrect.
- Assumed: Adopted as one's own; taken for granted.
- Sham: A thing that is not what it is purported to be.
- Real: Actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact.
- Genuine: Truly what something is said to be; authentic.
- Factual: Concerned with what is actually the case.
- Authentic: Of undisputed origin; genuine.
"Fictitious business name": A name under which a business operates that is not the legal name of the owner(s); also called a "doing business as" (DBA) name.
- The sole proprietor registered a fictitious business name for her bakery.
"Fictitious payee" (Law/Finance): A payee on a negotiable instrument who is not intended to have an interest in the instrument, potentially making it bearer paper.
- The check was made payable to a fictitious payee, so it was treated as cash.
- adopted in order to deceive
- an assumed name
- an assumed cheerfulness
- a fictitious address
- fictive sympathy
- a pretended interest
- a put-on childish voice
- sham modesty
- formed or conceived by the imagination
- a fabricated excuse for his absence
- a fancied wrong
- a fictional character