Definition of fable in English:

fable

See synonyms for fable

Translate fable into Spanish

noun

1A short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.
‘the fable of the sick lion and the wary fox’
- ‘Buddha Stories is a collection of animal fables that teach the moral principles of Buddhism.’
- ‘The book is an anthology of moral fables told by mystics such as Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharshi: an interesting idea for a collection.’
- ‘The Bible, in keeping with other ancient Near Eastern cultures, includes a book of proverbs, and in the Book of Kings we read of the parable of the trees who gathered to elect a king - a natural rather than an animal fable.’
- ‘Corvids such as Crows, Ravens, and Jackdaws were more complex characters in Aesop's fables because they could be both vain and foolish, a powerful combination to be sure.’
- ‘This reminds me of the moral from an Aesop fable about a scorpion that gets a ride across a river on the back of a frog, but stings the frog to death before they get to the other side.’
- ‘By placing extreme emphasis on the moral of each tale, stories such as the tale of Sukanya and Sunisa and the Aesop's fables seek to foster a particular code of behavior and attitudes in the children of Thai immigrants.’
- ‘The folktales include stories about animals, fairy tales, fables with moral lessons, Buddhist legends, and stories about historical figures.’
- ‘In the 6th century BCE the Greek author Aesop wrote his timeless fables - short narratives in which animals are the central characters and the aim is to convey a moral message.’
- ‘However even if we doubt the validity of the morals proposed, crude fables frequently remain eloquent pieces of short prose.’
- ‘Children are irresistibly drawn to stories, and we use them to instill all the most important ideas about the human community, its daily dangers and rules, plus moral fables about how to succeed and be happy.’
- ‘Likewise the use of animals as human stand-ins turns the tales into Aesop-like fables with a modern, existential twist.’
- ‘One animal in these fables is as clever as the fox, wise as the owl, and diplomatic as the rabbit.’
- ‘In The Phaedrus Plato recounts a fable whose moral is the bad effects of writing, a moral deriving from the choice he makes in thinking to resolve the dilemma that writing poses.’
- ‘The Nun's Priest tells one of the best tales, a beast fable with a moral lesson.’
- ‘These fables are clearly stories because they not only lay out propositions about the world but also meet the narrative requirement of storytelling - moralising closure.’
- ‘They also appear, imbued with human attributes, in myths and fables, making them key agents in the teaching of indigenous manners and codes of behavior.’
- ‘Children were once told fairytales, myths, legends and fables because they had a meaning, a moral or a special psychological relevance.’
- ‘This lesson through gods and legends is a fable for adults regarding faith and truth in oneself.’
- ‘It's an odd but satisfying little fable about loss and loneliness.’
- ‘Some things, it seems, never change for the entrepreneur who appears to relish his role in a strange high-tech version of that old fable, The Boy Who Cried Wolf.’
moral tale, parable, apologue, allegory, bestiary
View synonyms
1. 1.1A story, typically a supernatural one incorporating elements of myth and legend.
  ‘he had conjured up a monster fit for any fable’
  ‘. Her online papers on fables and myths of the mobile telecom industry are fascinating, and not least because of her creative approach to ethnographic writing.’
  ‘His stories were enigmatic fables set in the past, and could be understood as veiled political criticism.’
  ‘This is not a thriller nor a horror story but a fable; despite some of its 20th century trappings, it exists in the world of the Brothers Grimm, one remove from any identifiable time or place.’
  ‘The story lays out a fable of the American Dream lost.’
  ‘It's meant as a fable, with elements of parody and literary criticism thrown in by the author to keep everybody guessing.’
  ‘Here's a story - a fable, really - of a noble company and its difficult encounters with a fickle, fast-moving world.’
  ‘This is not a Hollywood rag to riches fable; it's a real story about a real man.’
  ‘The novel could be a kind of myth or fable of the afterlife for the 20th century.’
  ‘In this fable peopled with a fantastic cast of royalty, servants and talking rodents, Despereaux falls in love with a human princess and sets out to save her from danger.’
  ‘Wings Of Desire, his poetic 1987 fable about guardian angels watching over Berlin, remains one of the most successful European productions in cinema history.’
  ‘As feminist fable, the film is tart, evocative, intelligent.’
  ‘Patience, which premiered at Toronto's Tarragon Theatre in 1998, is a wry modern fable loosely inspired by the Book of Job.’
  ‘The only British actress to be nominated for an Oscar this year is luminous and touching in Jim Sheridan's immigrant fable.’
  ‘By comparison, Phil Alden Robinson's Field Of Dreams is a far more stirring yet gentle sporting fable, a hymn to self-belief that continues to inspire.’
  ‘However, no fable or legend was nearly as fantastic as the one told by the stranger who fell from the sky.’
  ‘Ultimately, the moralism of Veber's fable becomes slightly cloying, as the film suggests that a simple change in perspective from time to time is enough to make that stultifying job at the plant more bearable.’
  ‘But what these two mean to each other far transcends any conventional love story-or any sentimental fable of an attachment between two lost souls.’
  ‘It is apt that Virgo frames his story like a fable, as all melodrama has its origins in morality plays and/or folk tales.’
  ‘A similar loss (a mother lost) brings a little boy into the care of his distant uncle in Seth's film fable Passage to Ottawa: a coming of age film with a great performance by the young leading character.’
  ‘The characters in my fable are modern-day versions of Galileo, Newton, and Leibniz.’
  myth, legend, saga, epic, folk tale, folk story, traditional story, tale, story, fairy tale, narrative, romance
  View synonyms
2. 1.2Myth and legend.
  ‘the unnatural monsters of fable’
  ‘Wherever you go in Western France you follow in the footsteps of history, shadowed by myth and legend, with fable and fairy tale snapping at your heels.’
  ‘Perhaps it's a little too oversimplified - but isn't that the heart of fable and myth… a simple story with a deeper message?’
  myth, legend, fable, fairy tale, romance
  View synonyms
3. 1.3A false statement or belief.
  ‘believers accused the cosmologists of inventing fables on the birth of the universe’
  ‘The personal fable reflects the mistaken belief that one's feelings and experiences are uniquely different from those of others.’
  ‘I really don't know anything about The Beach Boys other than the fables and tired myths that surround their bandleader.’
  ‘Then came the latest of the many myths that constitute the fable of the modern American presidency.’
  ‘‘That's another fable they've come up with,’ corrected Kuklinski.’
  ‘Such convincing will be difficult; the poor have always been told precisely that fable.’
  falsehood, fib, fabrication, deception, made-up story, trumped-up story, fake news, invention, concoction, piece of fiction, fiction, falsification, falsity, fairy story, fairy tale, cock and bull story
  View synonyms

Pronunciation

fable

/ˈfāb(ə)l/ /ˈfeɪb(ə)l/

intransitive verb

[no object]

1 archaic Tell fictitious tales.
‘I do not dream nor fable’
- ‘The wealth of entrepreneurs and capitalists is, whatever the anticapitalistic demagogues may fable, so much inferior to that of kings and princes that they cannot indulge in such luxurious construction.’
- ‘For a ‘tale, taken from… facts,’ Castle Rackrent's fabling and didacticism are remarkably insistent and cohesive.’
- ‘Poets may fable of such a will, that it makes the very heavens conform to it.’
1. 1.1with object Fabricate or invent (an incident, person, or story)
  ‘men soon fabled up their Histories into Miracle and Wonder’
  ‘The story may be fabled but the lessons to be learned from Wotan's casual flings are utterly human.’
  ‘Soon our valley in Somerset was fabled as a kind of nymph-strewn Arcadia.’
  ‘I went to the fabled Bunny Deli - fabled by me, at least; I've put it in many things I've written.’
  ‘Many claim a Scottish born fashion photographer is fabled in his field for taking pictures of celebrities.’
  ‘No, not for those reasons, though he was certain she'd be fabled in those areas as well, but for something even greater about her.’