fictitious
adj.not real or true, but made up as part of a story. You use this to describe characters, names, or events that only exist in books or movies.
adj.invented or imaginary; not existing in fact. Often used to describe literary creations or false identities created for deception.
“The story is set in a fictitious town in the mountains.”
“To protect her privacy, the author used a fictitious name when she checked into the hotel.”
“The legal team argued that the evidence was based on fictitious accounts provided by witnesses who were not present at the scene.”
Typically used attributively before a noun; frequently contrasted with 'factual' or 'biographical'.
While often interchangeable, 'fictional' usually refers to literature, whereas 'fictitious' often implies a false or deceptive invention like a fake name or address.
“Schools received an email from a fictitious two-parent household with both a mother and father interested in enrolling a child.”
Borrowed from Latin fictīcius.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.