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Glite Dictionary
poetic license

poetic license

2 6.7
Freedom a writer or artist takes to change facts to make a story stronger
  • noun
  • /poʊˈɛtɪk ˈlaɪsəns/
  • Literature
translation icon : licencia poética
  • In his song, the musician took poetic license to portray the city as a magical place.
  • take poetic license
  • use poetic license

Examples

  • While there are some songs that are unscriptural (and we have never seen any songbook totally exempt from all criticism), we certainly do believe in poetic license.

    Blog text (18)

  • Even soon afterward, poetic license was not only allowed, it was expected.

  • - I was taking poetic license.

    Mirror Mirror (2012)

  • - I take poetic license.

    Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

  • I would be the first to agree that there is such a thing as poetic license.

    Academic text (2010)

  • I used a little poetic license to capture your essence.

    Boogie Nights (1997)

  • Rattles is defining poetic license here as against literal truth.

  • While weak poets distastefully evaded the difficulty of fixed forms through poetic license, strong poets had sufficient ingenuity to follow the form's rules with grace.

    Academic text (2017)

  • As a writer, she felt free to use poetic license to enhance the emotion of her story.

  • The artist's latest painting clearly demonstrates his use of poetic license in blending reality with imagination.

Synonyms

license
vspoetic license
  • US
83 7.2

Freedom to act without following normal rules, often in behavior or art

is the specific freedom artists use to break facts or rules for artistic effect

Antonyms

conformity
24 4.8

A state of behaving and thinking like most people or like rules say

literalism
  • Literature
1 8.2

A way of making art or writing that shows things exactly as they are, not using symbols

How Free

poetic license
  • Literature
2 6.7

Surface Forms

poetic license singular
poetic licenses plural
poetic licences plural
poetic licence singular

Morphology

poetic + license

The meaning is directly inferable from combining 'poetic' (relating to poetry, artistic expression) with 'license' (permission or freedom): it denotes a permission to be poetic or to bend rules for artistic effect. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically (e.g. Spanish 'licencia poética'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely grasp the intended sense.

Etymology

Poetic license uses poetic (art) and license ('permission') to paint a picture of a writer given special 'permission' to bend facts or grammar to make a poem or story feel stronger. That's why it means the freedom to change rules or facts in writing or art to get a better effect.