fairytale

fairytale — 名詞

1. a children's story about imaginary creatures, magic, and enchanted places, often

1.名詞A2
釋義

童話

給兒童看的魔法幻想故事

a children's story about imaginary creatures, magic, and enchanted places, often with princes, princesses, and happy endings.

例句

Before bed, Linh's grandmother read her a fairytale about a dragon and a brave princess.

睡覺前，Linh 的祖母唸了一個關於龍和勇敢公主的童話給她聽。

read (someone) a fairytale — typical verb-object collocation

The children acted out their favourite fairytale, with Noa playing the wicked witch.

孩子們演出他們最喜歡的童話，由 Noa 扮演邪惡的女巫。

favourite fairytale — common adjective collocation

同義詞
  • folk tale

    a traditional story passed down orally within a culture; fairytales are a sub-type of folk tales that specifically include magic

  • fable

    a short story, usually with animal characters, that teaches a clear moral lesson

  • legend

    a semi-historical story about heroic figures; legends are presented as possibly true, unlike fairytales

文法句型

a fairytale

fairytales (plural)

用法筆記

The word can also be written as two separate words (fairy tale) or with a hyphen (fairy-tale). The closed compound 'fairytale' is especially common in British English and in journalistic writing.

常見錯誤

❌Aesop's fables are fairytales about animals.
✅Aesop's fables are short moral stories with animal characters, not fairytales.
💡Fairytales involve magic and enchantment; fables teach practical lessons through talking animals.

2. a description of events that is so exaggerated or unlikely that it cannot be bel

2.名詞B2
釋義

謊言；誇大

過於美好或離奇而不可信的解釋

a description of events that is so exaggerated or unlikely that it cannot be believed, often used as an excuse.

例句

When Élise told police she got lost in the woods, no one believed her fairytale.

當 Élise 向警方說她在森林裡迷路時，沒有人相信她的謊話。

tell a fairytale — figurative use meaning a false excuse

The politician's description of a perfect economy was just a fairytale with no real numbers.

那位政治人物對完美經濟的描述根本是沒有實際數據的誇大之詞。

dismiss something as a fairytale — critical tone

同義詞
  • fabrication

    more formal; emphasises that something was invented with intent to deceive

  • tall tale

    informal; describes an exaggerated story told for entertainment rather than deception

  • fantasy

    can refer to an imagined situation; softer and less accusatory than 'fairytale'

反義詞
  • fact

    a piece of information that can be proven true

  • truth

    the real facts about a situation

文法句型

a fairytale

something is a fairytale

用法筆記

This figurative use carries a negative or sceptical tone. The speaker implies that the story is not just wrong but deliberately misleading or self-serving. Objects are typically accounts, excuses, promises, or explanations.

常見錯誤

❌The documentary told a fairytale about ancient Egypt.
✅The documentary told a story about ancient Egypt.
💡The figurative sense of 'fairytale' implies a deliberately false claim, not just a fictional narrative.

fairytale — 形容詞