FAIRY TALES Synonyms: 56 Similar and Opposite Words

fairy tales

noun

plural of fairy tale

as in lies

a statement known by its maker to be untrue and made in order to deceive did you really see a bear, or are you telling us another one of your fairy tales?

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of fairy tales Created by Professor Antonio Faeti, an author and educator, the museum features exhibits on the role of shoes in fairy tales, travelers in search of discoveries, children who risk getting lost in the forest and more. — Irene S. Levine, Forbes.com, 15 Aug. 2026 The paranoid despot is a familiar trope, in fairy tales and in fact. — Christopher Barnard, Vogue, 11 Aug. 2026 Football is full of cautionary tales (and, for the sake of balance, morally-dubious fairy tales) about the risks and rewards of taking on finance adjacent to or entangled with politics. — James Horncastle, New York Times, 30 July 2026 Along the narrow hallway, bookshelves burst with first editions of John Updike, battered Stephen Kings, graphic novels, dime-store paperbacks, board games, books about mythology, children’s fairy tales, and Warhammer rule sets. — Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 29 July 2026 When the Italian artist Gaia Alari was a little girl, her father, Gabriele, used to read her fairy tales in the evening. — Ian Crouch, New Yorker, 9 July 2026 Kindergarten teachers say that many of their students don’t know nursery rhymes or fairy tales, Benjamin Powers, the director of Yale and the University of Connecticut’s Haskins Global Literacy Hub, told me. — Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic, 8 July 2026 Andersen had sent Dickens a copy of his fairy tales translated into English, and Dickens neglected to show the children. — Stuart Miller, Oc Register, 10 June 2026 The theater is known for goofy, campy, original musical theater shows that riotously riff on fairy tales, folklore, TV shows and other familiar cultural tropes. — Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 8 June 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for fairy tales

Noun

From February 2022 until they were arrested on Monday, Love and Chan solicited money from women in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho through lies and misrepresentations, according to the United States Attorney’s Office in Portland.

— Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 27 Aug. 2026
The film follows an 11-year-old boy who exploits his brother’s tragic death to fight his father and his community, until his lies expose the hypocrisy and corruption beneath a seemingly moral society.

— Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 21 Aug. 2026

Definition of lies

Noun

In forums on Reddit, women share tales of having perimenopause and menopause symptoms misdiagnosed or dismissed as mental health disorders, early-onset dementia, or autoimmune issues, resulting in months or years of unnecessary testing.

— Yulin Hswen, STAT, 27 Aug. 2026
Vedder’s elliptical tales of adolescent trauma were a perfect fit with music that blended classic-rock tropes (especially McCready’s solos) with punk energy, grunge guitar tones and the groove-heavy vibe of early-Nineties alt-rock.

— Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 27 Aug. 2026

Definition of tales

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fairy tale

fairy tales

faith

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“Fairy tales.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fairy%20tales. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of fairy tales

noun

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