WORD OF THE DAY: CONFABULATE
verb | kun-FAB-yuh-layt
Confabulate has two very different meanings. Most of the time, to confabulate is to generate a false memory by filling in memory gaps with fabrications. An older meaning, still in use, is “to talk informally; to chat.”
// Patients who have this type of memory disorder are known to confabulate.
EXAMPLE OF CONFABULATE
“My dearly-loved sister, Marj, died suddenly one month ago at 93. … No one else will remember the glint that lit Dad’s eyes when Mom announced, ‘I’m baking a batch of Mrs. Mahoney’s cookies.’ I can smell that molasses now. … I miss her, and especially dread the loss of her as a companion in our treasure-trove of joint memories. Who else can set the record straight when I confabulate?” — Larry Beahan, The Buffalo News, 17 Aug. 2025
DID YOU KNOW?
There are multiple ways to confabulate. If you want to do it the original way, you’ll simply have a chat with someone. People have been confabulating with one another thusly since the early 1600s. Today, however, the word is usually used with the meaning it took on in the early 1900s, and especially in contexts relating to psychology: confabulating in this way means fabricating memories especially to fill memory gaps. In the 2000s, confabulate is taking on a new use. Artificial intelligence that produces false output is also now sometimes said to be confabulating, i.e. hallucinating. The ultimate source of this versatile word is the Latin noun fābula, which refers to a conversation or a story, and is also the root of fabulous, as well as fable.
Merriam Webster Dictionary
