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Literature vocabulary · Genres and Forms

Fairy tale

Meaning in literature, with examples

nounCommon term

In literature, fairy tale means: A traditional or literary tale involving magic and extraordinary events.

In Turkish: masal

How it is used

Use for traditional tales and literary retellings. A fairy tale need not contain fairies.

Example sentences

  1. This fairy tale gives the youngest daughter three impossible tasks.

    The tasks create a pattern of magical trials for the heroine.

  2. The writer retells a familiar fairy tale from the wolf's point of view.

    Changing the viewpoint reshapes a story the reader already knows.

Common collocations

  • retell a fairy tale
  • traditional fairy tale
  • narrativeA story or account of connected events, and the way it is told; also used as an adjective for anything that tells a story.
  • point of viewThe position from which a story is told, which decides whose eyes we see events through and how much we learn, for example first-person or third-person.

More terms: Genres and Forms

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