How to Use fictionalize in a Sentence

fictionalize

verb
Definition of fictionalizenext
  • Her books are based in fact, but she fictionalizes many of the events.
  • The book is a fictionalized account of their travels.
  • Also not fictionalized for the TV show are the oh-so-real river views.
    — Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 2 Oct. 2023
  • Does fictionalizing these feelings serve as a sort of bridge?
    — Julia Felsenthal, Vogue, 1 May 2018
  • Episode by episode, the show would document (and fictionalize) the downfalls of men in power in Hollywood.
    — Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, 7 May 2018
  • On the one hand, courts recognize that not every person or product must be fictionalized in film and TV.
    — Danny Cevallos, NBC News, 26 Jan. 2018
  • In that book, Louis fictionalizes the story of his bruising childhood in Hallencourt, a working-class town in northern France.
    — Tope Folarin, The Atlantic, 29 Feb. 2024
  • Emma Gannon fictionalized her alienation at being the only one in a friendship group who didn’t want to be a mother in her novel Olive.
    — Holly Williams, Vogue, 8 Aug. 2023
  • Those were important to Cheryl and the rest was fictionalized from this amazing writers room that Liz [Tigelaar, the showrunner] put together.
    — Radhika Menon, ELLE, 8 Apr. 2023
  • On the other hand, her choice to fictionalize this history gives her license to do a little editing, from which the book might have benefitted.
    — Elizabeth Toohey, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 May 2017
  • Over the course of her journey, Syd eats at several real Chicago restaurants — some of them institutions, some of them up-and-comers and one of them fictionalized for the show.
    — Josh Wigler, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 July 2023
  • In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the effect that true crime stories, however fictionalized, can have on the people involved.
    — Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 6 Jan. 2024
  • The movie fictionalized her story, of course, so read the book to see where the iconic Audrey Hepburn character draws inspiration.
    — Lizz Schumer, Peoplemag, 4 Feb. 2024
  • Is fictionalizing certain elements of your life in the stories in Screen Tests a way of complicating this?
    — Tobias Carroll, Longreads, 25 July 2019
  • Scoop notably isn’t the first time Andrew’s Newsnight interview, and the story behind it, has been loosely fictionalized.
    — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 12 Feb. 2024
  • Netflix clearly states that the series is fictionalized, but it is based in reality.
    — Korin Miller, Women's Health, 14 Aug. 2023
  • But the disclaimer implies that the film is essentially true, whereas all biopics are fictionalized, usually to a high degree.
    — Terry Teachout, WSJ, 27 Dec. 2018
  • Jean’s story is fictionalized, but Oakley and her crew brought historic elements of the time period.
    — Emily Zemler, Los Angeles Times, 15 June 2023
  • By 1983, the film Scarface had even fictionalized a Marielito as a druglord and violent criminal.
    — Time, 4 Aug. 2017
  • The three of them were developing a television series based loosely on Tom’s film about the National, but fictionalized.
    — Matthew Strauss, Pitchfork, 4 Oct. 2023
  • The show, which premieres Wednesday on Freeform, is a decent little sitcom that finds an effective way to frame and fictionalize its star, writes television critic Robert Lloyd.
    — Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2022
  • To turn that story into a feature film required Wilson-Cairns and Lindholm to fictionalize certain aspects and change some details.
    — Emily Zemler, Los Angeles Times, 26 Oct. 2022
  • The film also has a longer-than-usual coda featuring interviews with the real figures fictionalized in the movie, which is commendable.
    — Orange County Register, 12 Jan. 2017
  • The choice to fictionalize Schlosser's journalism robs the story of its true impact by muddying the factual waters.
    — Brian Smolensky, EW.com, 13 Dec. 2022
  • Instead of getting the standard disclaimer out of the way with onscreen text clarifying that some aspects of the show have been fictionalized, the creators recruited parents who lost children to opioids to read it.
    — Time, 10 Aug. 2023
  • Shiryaev’s enhancements fictionalize certain aspects of a scene that are unknowable a century after the film was shot.
    — Matt Simon, Wired, 12 Aug. 2020
  • Neveu has dramatized and fictionalized the story, placing a mentally disabled man, named Terry Kilbourn in the play, and his family at its center.
    — Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 15 May 2018
  • Unlike many biographical jukebox shows chronicling childhood to celebrity, this one is both focused and fictionalized, depicting a few months in the life of a 17-year-old named Ali.
    — Michael Paulson, New York Times, 4 Oct. 2023
  • Edwidge Danticat fictionalizes this massacre in her dazzling 1998 novel The Farming of Bones.
    — Longreads, 28 Feb. 2018
  • Because there’s so much overlap between your real life and what goes on the show, is there anything that’s fictionalized that didn’t actually happen to me and now people associate that with you because of the fictional version?
    — Todd Gilchrist, Variety, 27 Apr. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fictionalize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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