make-believe

/'meikbi,li:v/

Thân thiện

Children enjoy playing make-believe in the backyard.

Definition

1. Noun:

   • The act of pretending or imagining things that are not real: "make-believe" refers to the activity of creating or accepting imaginary scenarios, often for play or fantasy.
   • A state of pretending or a fantasy world: It can also describe the imaginary world or situation itself that is created.

2. Adjective:

   • Imagined, pretended, or not real: Used to describe something that is invented for the purpose of play, fantasy, or deception, and is not genuine or true.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:

  • The children's game was full of make-believe, with castles and dragons.
  • He retreated into a world of make-believe to escape his problems.

• Adjective:

  • They fought with make-believe swords made of sticks.
  • She told a make-believe story about meeting a fairy.

Advanced Usage

• "It's all make-believe": A phrase used to emphasize that a situation, story, or threat is entirely imaginary or fabricated and not to be taken seriously.

  • Don't worry about the monster; it's all make-believe.

• "A make-believe world": Describes a fully constructed imaginary realm, often used in literature or psychology.

  • The author created a rich make-believe world for her fantasy novels.

Variants and Related Words

• Pretend (verb/adjective): To behave as if something is true when it is not; imagined. (e.g., / )
• Fantasy (noun): The faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable.
• Imaginary (adjective): Existing only in the imagination.

Synonyms

• Pretense: The act of pretending.
• Fantasy: Imaginative fiction or daydreaming.
• Fiction: Literature or narratives describing imaginary events and people.

Related Phrases

• Play make-believe: To engage in imaginative play.
  • The siblings love to play make-believe in the backyard.

Related Idioms

• A figment of one's imagination: Something that is not real but created by the mind. This is a close conceptual relative to the world of make-believe.
  • The sound was just a figment of his imagination.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. imagined as in a play
   • the make-believe world of theater
   • play money
   • dangling their legs in the water to catch pretend fish

Noun

1. the enactment of a pretense
   • it was just pretend
2. imaginative intellectual play

Từ đồng nghĩa

• pretend
• pretense
• pretence