speculative fiction

Meaning

1. 1noununcountable

   Stories set in imagined worlds or situations that differ from reality, covering genres such as science fiction, fantasy and dystopian tales.

   Grammar: Usually has no plural: she writes speculative fiction, not speculative fictions.

   Patterns

   • a work of speculative fiction
   • speculative fiction about something

   The library has a whole shelf of speculative fiction, from space operas to tales of magic.

   Her novel is speculative fiction that imagines a city where it never stops raining.

   Many teachers now include speculative fiction in the reading list because students love it.

Common combinations

write speculative fiction

He began to write speculative fiction after studying physics.

a work of speculative fiction

The book is a work of speculative fiction about memory.

award-winning speculative fiction

The festival celebrates award-winning speculative fiction from new authors.

speculative fiction author

The speculative fiction author signed copies after the talk.

dystopian speculative fiction

Dystopian speculative fiction often warns about technology.

Synonyms and how they differ

science fiction

Science fiction is narrower, focusing on science and technology, while speculative fiction also includes fantasy and other imagined worlds.

fantasy

Fantasy centres on magic and unreal worlds and is just one branch of speculative fiction.

sci-fi

Sci-fi is the informal short form of science fiction and does not cover fantasy or horror.

Opposites

Word family

speculate verb

to form ideas about something without full evidence

speculation noun

guesswork or theory without firm proof

speculative adjective

based on guesses or imagined possibilities

fiction noun

invented stories

Commonly confused: speculative fiction or science fiction?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “speculative fiction”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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