polite fictions
polite fictions is the plural of polite fiction.
Meaning of polite fiction
Noun
polite fiction (plural polite fictions)
- A social scenario in which all participants are aware of a truth, but pretend to believe in some alternative version of events to avoid conflict or embarrassment.
- Susan is only able to deal with the fact that her husband has sex with the man down the street through a polite fiction. She knows what her husband is really doing when he says he is going "to buy cigarettes".
Questions about polite fictions
- What is polite fictions the plural of?
- Polite fictions is the plural of polite fiction.
Words near polite fictions in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: polite fictions (page history and authors); polite fiction (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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