Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Barely credible; astonishing: the fabulous endurance of a marathon runner.
- adj. Extremely pleasing or successful: a fabulous vacation.
- adj. Of the nature of a fable or myth; legendary.
- adj. Told of or celebrated in fables or legends.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Feigned or invented, as a story; fictitious; not true or real: as, a fabulous description or hero; the fabulous exploits of Hercules.
- Exceeding the bounds of probability or reason; not to be received as truth; incredible; hence, enormous; immense; amazing: as, a fabulous price; fabulous magnificence.
- Fabling; addicted to telling fables.
Wiktionary
- adj. of or relating to fable, myth or legend.
- adj. characteristic of fables; marvelous, extraordinary, incredible, unbelievable, absurd, extreme, or exaggerated.
- adj. fictional or not believable; made up.
- adj. known for telling fables or falsehoods; unreliable.
- adj. very good; outstanding, wonderful.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Feigned, as a story or fable; related in fable; devised; invented; not real; fictitious.
- adj. beyond belief; exceedingly great.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. barely credible
- adj. extremely pleasing
- adj. based on or told of in traditional stories; lacking factual basis or historical validity
Etymologies
- From French fabuleux or Latin fabulosus, "celebrated in fable". (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, mythical, from Old French fabuleux, from Latin fābulōsus, from fābula, fable; see fable. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“As a matter of fact, Beverly Hills Fabulous is so fabulous that it makes the word fabulous not fabulous enough.”
The Huffington Post: Abe Gurko: Beverly Hills Fabulous Is Beyond Fabulous
“Jason Shultz has witnessed what he calls a fabulous presentation 9MB MP3on the band's legal run-in with Sony over the composition rights to the Beatles songs they parodied and how Lars Ulrich redeemed himself from the dark days of fighting Napster by defending the band's fair use.”
“Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who represents the area in which the crash occurred, on Thursday noted that Octavia, which he called a "fabulous boulevard," could be challenging for drivers, especially those unfamiliar with the city.”
“I believe in the democratic process and both sides should be able to debate, but acting "ghetto-fabulous" is not a way to get anything done.”
“Whittemore's work is just plain fabulous, in more ways than one, and I think both of these books have an innate appeal that's born of their strangeness.”
“We both had the lamb platter with lemon fries, again fabulous and plentiful.”
“SciFi Wire is confirming that the once thought lost Star Trek Experience in fabulous Las Vegas will be reopening to coincide with the opening of the new Star Trek film.”
“At Cheltenham literature festival last week, a fine crowd turned out at the delightful Frank Matcham-designed Everyman theatre to hear Bettany Hughes, Stella Duffy and Lucy Hughes-Hallett debate which heroine of the classical world was the most powerful, influential and just plain fabulous: Helen of Troy, Theodora or Cleopatra?”
The Guardian: Stella Duffy rides Theodora to victory at Cheltenham
“WITH LOVE soundtrack (Fontana, 1967, vinyl of course) All very bouncy with Lulu in fabulous form, plus The Mindbenders.”
“The proof of this is displayed throughout the book in fabulous renderings that called to mind the work of Syd Mead.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fabulous’.
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Very Silly Words
A list of very silly sounding words, as well as words that are fun to say
badot, gardyloo, dingbat, gaffer, kine, haberdashery, forsooth, whey-faced, hoddypeak, brouhaha, widdershins, decemnovenarianize and 115 more...
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I speak Warhol
Words that make me think of Andy Warhol, for whatever reason.
pop, gee, factory, superstar, screen test, silver, silkscreen, Sleep, soup, Marilyn Monroe, speed, voyeur and 23 more...
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fashion
words that describe my closet, your closet, her closet, his closet, anyones closet in the world.
bejeweled, sequined, pleather, fierce, fabulous, black, broke is the new ..., burn out, stud, bustier, bangin belt, christian loubout... and 4 more...
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Style
Words that pertain to style in some way, shape or form.
chichi, uber, food stylist, extraordinaire, la-ti-da, fabulous, chic, selective, adorn, decked out, titivate
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Twitter faves
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
gonk, nerking, guap, gimp, fabulous, dabble, fabilicious, tragic, zooted, hey, cheekini, nugget and 457 more... -
Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
bumwank, calamity, recalcitrant, gayenese, jeeze, nonsense, flabbergasted, juxtapose, procrastinating, ossanity, biffing, loser and 1972 more... -
Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Apples to Apples: Green Cards
A complete list of the green cards (adjectives) from the popular word game.
absurd, addictive, adorable, aged, American, ancient, animated, annoying, appetizing, arrogant, awesome, awkward and 237 more...
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dark and bright words of shine and fi...
scotophil, scotoma, scotia, shed, shadow, shade, scone, whiting, edelweiss, light, lightning, lucina and 349 more...
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Inner B
Words with the letter b within the word, not just as the initial or last letter.
remember, maybe, able, unable, nimble, cable, reusable, thimble, cymbal, capable, tremble, enable and 143 more...
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Words That People Use All The Time In...
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junestag's Words
postmodernism, cat, fish, rabbit, dell, coffee, elearning, mazda, php, mysql, flash, blogger and 755 more...
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mikepurvis's Words
consequentially, outrageous, shindig, mediocre, quintessential, vigilante, fabulous, ostentatious, pedantry, in the wild, buffet, amorphous and 122 more...
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Day to Day
Words that I use too often
folks, generally, originally, fabulous, fantastic, knock, retarded, absolutely, risk, sleepy
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fabulous.

seanahan The word fabulist still has some zing. Oct 31, 2009
yarb I sometimes use it that way, and not out of wilfulness. I guess I read too much old literature... The old meaning definitely has more value though. Oct 28, 2009
madmouth very sad that this word can no longer be used to mean "of or relating to fables" Oct 28, 2009