English

Noun

figment ‎(plural figments)

1. A fabrication, fantasy, invention; something fictitious.
   • 1989 (Sep 30), R. McNeill Alexander, "Biomechanics in the days before Newton", New Scientist volume 123, No. 1684, page 59

     He had not seen sarcomeres: these segments were a figment of his imagination.

   • 1999, Martin Gardner, The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener, page 12

     Perhaps, dear reader, you are only a figment in the dream of some god, as Sherlock Holmes was a figment in the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

   • 2004, Daniel C. Noel, In a Wayward Mood: Selected Writings 1969-2002, page 256

     Jung's implication here is clearly that one should try to forget that this is only a figment or fantasy, merely make-believe—or perhaps that one should forget the “only,” the “merely”—and indeed take the fantasy seriously as a reality.

Usage notes

• Often used in the form "a figment of [someone's] imagination".

Related terms

• feign
• fiction
• fictional
• fictitious

Translations

References

• figment in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• figment in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911