Fiction, figment, fabrication, fable are comparable when meaning a story, an account, an explanation, or a conception which is an invention of the human mind.
Fiction so strongly implies the use of the imagination that it serves as the class name for all prose or poetic writings which deal with imagined characters and situations or with actual characters or situations with less concern for the historicity of the details than for the telling of an interesting, coherent story.
In the sense here particularly considered, a fiction is something that is made up without reference to and often in defiance of fact or reality or truth, typically for some such reason as to avoid telling an unpleasant or inconvenient truth or to describe or explain someone or something about whom or which practically nothing is known or to impose upon others an interpretation or an assumption that serves one’s own ends or that satisfies the unthinking because of its accord with outward appearances or, especially in legal or scientific use, to provide a convenient assumption or method whereby one can deal with what is beyond the range of rational or objective proof.
Fiction may apply to something which appears to be or is believed to be true or which accords with some higher form of truth (as “poetic truth,” “philosophical truth,” or “spiritual truth”) or with the demands of reason when these come into conflict with fact or with the world as apprehended by the senses; figment and fabrication, on the other hand, carry no implication of justification and typically suggest a defiance of truth of whatever kind or degree.
Figment usually suggests the operation of fancy or of unlicensed imagination and neglect of fact.
Fabrication applies to something that is made up with artifice and usually with the intent to deceive; consequently it is often used of a fiction that is a deliberate and complete falsehood.
Fable (see also ALLEGORY 2 ) applies to a fictitious narrative that is obviously unconcerned with fact, usually because it deals with events or situations that are marvelous, impossible, preposterous, or incredible.