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fictionalize

[fik-shuh-nl-ahyz] / ˈfɪk ʃə nlˌaɪz /
VERB
fake
Synonyms


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.

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“Hacks” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” successfully fictionalize such frustrations, as the tribute acknowledges by opening with “Hacks” star Jean Smart’s pre-recorded reflections on the late comedian’s influence.

From Salon May 14, 2025

Noomin waited years after her losses before writing about them, and the conflict between wanting to fictionalize her story and to tell it honestly is dramatized through conversations with an alter ego.

From New York Times Nov. 22, 2022

“I was very excited to pick it apart and figure out what we wanted to fictionalize to push this story forward,” he said.

From Washington Post Sep. 4, 2022

“We just decided, ‘We’re not going to fictionalize the Valley.’”

From Los Angeles Times Jan. 27, 2022

It was a means by which, if not to erase or delete memory, to splice it, to fictionalize it, and to some degree begin again; and yet he judged consciousness to be even less real.

From An Apostate: Nawin of Thais by Sills, Steven (Steven David Justin)

His interest in Murashige, meanwhile, a real-life tactician fictionalized here as an under-the-gun leader presented with myriad problems, poses the question: Did Kurosawa make a film about directing films?

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 30, 2026

Prosecutors allege that Matar was motivated by a fatwa that Ayatollah Khomeini, then leader of Iran, issued in 1989 following Rushdie's depiction of a fictionalized Prophet Muhammad in his novel "The Satanic Verses."

From Barron's Jul. 23, 2026

Mr. Pynchon, a descendant of the colonial family fictionalized in “The House of the Seven Gables,” infuses his chronicle with a modern sense of paranoia and a taste for countercultural heresies.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 19, 2026

Realizing he’d be unable to direct his fictionalized childhood remembrance, he entrusted it to his mentee Akin, the firebrand behind modern German classics such as “Head-On” and “In the Fade.”

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 24, 2026

Mother tells me you have given up on the tribal art book and are pleased with this one, a sort of fictionalized travelogue?

From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“Her First American,” Segal’s best book, also draws closely from life, but its fictionalizing feels freer and brings out poignant elements of romance and tragicomedy.

From The Wall Street Journal Mar. 18, 2026

I don’t want to ask you specifically about that, but rather the creative habit of approaching Lincoln’s life stories from an array of directions including fictionalizing him as a vampire slayer.

From Salon Sep. 6, 2024

It also drew a blank when asked for a speech from George Santos, the New York Republican congressman who was caught fictionalizing his past.

From Washington Times Feb. 6, 2023

The Book Review podcast: Alice Elliott Dark discusses her new novel and Katherine Chen talks about fictionalizing Joan of Arc.

From New York Times Jul. 10, 2022

“By fictionalizing away my innocence, my total lack of involvement, by erasing the role of the authorities in my wrongful conviction, McCarthy reinforces an image of me as a guilty and untrustworthy person,” Knox wrote.

From Seattle Times Jul. 30, 2021




Vocabulary lists containing fictionalize


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