Fabulate Meaning
/ˈfæbjʊleɪt/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo tell invented stories, often those that involve fantasy, such as fables.
verbTo relate as or in the manner of a fable.
Sentence Examples
She began to fabulate about her past.
The writer would fabulate entire stories.
The children like to fabulate stories about magical creatures in the forest.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The novelist loved to ____ about magical realms and heroic quests.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Children often ____ stories about imaginary friends and secret worlds where anything is possible.
Word Origin & History
From Latin fābulātus, perfect active participle of fābulor (“to tell stories, chat”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from fābula (“fable”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Human fears, needs, dreams release the latent propensities of the subliminal soul, and to respond to them the fabulating imagination sets to work."
— 1990, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, Tractatus Brevus, Kluwer, page 38:
"Anyone who considers it a pleasure to compose short stories or to fabulate a tale, must remain silent and say nothing of her beauty."
— 1990, Marianne Kalinke, Bridal-quest Romance in Medieval Iceland, page 74:
"The Fort is ſo barricadoed, that it is hard ſcaling it : the refractary Rebell ſo guarded with Euill and Poyſon, ſo warded with unruly and deadly ; as if it were with Gyants in an Inchanted Towre, as they fabulate ; so no man can tame it."
— 1630, Thomas Adams, “The Taming of the Tongve”, in The Workes of Tho: Adams, page 143:
"It is a rule, though, that each fabulate, as well as every other narrative that requires credence or pretense or at least the possibility of belief as its ingredient, is based on either a truly existing or an assumed memorate[…] or something similar."
— 1974, Linda Dégh, Andrew Vázsonyi, “The memorate and the proto-memorate”, in The Journal of American Folklore, volume 87, →DOI, page 232:
"To jocular fabulates (Sherzfabulate) I place inter alia some of the “Tales of the Stupid Ogre” in Aarne’s Type Register."
— 1948, Carl von Sydow, Selected Papers on Folklore, page 87:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The novelist loved to ____ about magical realms and heroic quests.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Children often ____ stories about imaginary friends and secret worlds where anything is possible.