to confabulate
1
9.9
- verb
- /kənˈfæbjʊˌleɪt/
- Specialized
:
confabular
- We diverge from Dennett in holding that our personal narratives are not entirely confabulated.
Examples
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So it confabulates a reason related to what it knows it did see—in other words, the chicken.
Academic text (1997) -
The split-brain experiments elucidate this phenomenon: one side of the brain reacts to an object that the other hemisphere can't see, and the "blind" hemisphere confabulates a bogus reason for the reaction.
Blog text (26) -
We confabulate from birth until death.
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You are right, I confabulated Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon.
Blog text (20) -
These experiments and many others show how people's conscious rationalization engine will confabulate explanations for actions whose actual motivation and cause are unknown.
Academic text (2006) -
More to the point, however, when the two hemispheres in split-brain patients produce conflicting behavior and the person is then asked to explain why he or she has behaved in this fashion, the left hemisphere will confabulate a reason based on its own limited information.
Academic text (1997) -
Try a medical site like emedicinehealth.com rather than a TRT blog, many of which confuse, confabulate, and constrain rational thought by posting very convincing commentary often misconstrued as fact.
Blog text (13) -
When asked about his childhood, he began to confabulate, creating detailed stories to fill the gaps in his memory.
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The researcher was careful to distinguish between real memories and those that were confabulated during the interview.
-
To explain the unusual event, she confabulated an elaborate tale that sounded plausible but was entirely made up.
Synonyms
972
3.2
Invent a story or excuse that is not true
50
7.3
To make up false information to trick people
46
6.0
Make up a story or excuse to trick people
1
8.0
To make up facts or details by a computer program
Giving wrong information as if it were true, usually by a computer program
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
confabulate = fabulate (opaque) = con + fabulate
The meaning of 'confabulate' as 'to make up or invent information' is not directly derivable from 'fabulate' or the prefix 'con-' for most learners.
Etymology
Confabulate comes from the Latin parts con- 'with' and fabula 'story', so it originally meant 'telling stories together'. In psychology it now often means to 'make up stories' to fill gaps in memory, which is why people can believe events that did not happen.