Phrase guide

fish story

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

An exaggerated or boastful story.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: fish tale, tall tale

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From the generally held belief that fishermen tend to exaggerate the size of their catch. Unrelated to the figurative sense of fishy.

Across languages

Translations

6 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: kalavale — exaggerated or boastful story
  • Finnish: kalajuttu — exaggerated or boastful story
  • German: Seemannsgarn — exaggerated or boastful story
  • Norwegian Bokmål: fiskeskrøne — exaggerated or boastful story
  • Polish: wierutne kłamstwo — exaggerated or boastful story
  • Portuguese: história de pescador — exaggerated or boastful story