Noun

(en noun)

A fabrication, fantasy, invention; something fictitious.

* 1989 (Sep 30), R. McNeill Alexander, "Biomechanics in the days before Newton", New Scientist volume 123, No. 1684, page 59

He had not seen sarcomeres: these segments were a figment of his imagination.

* 1999 , Martin Gardner, The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener , page 12

Perhaps, dear reader, you are only a figment in the dream of some god, as Sherlock Holmes was a figment in the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

* 2004 , Daniel C. Noel, In a Wayward Mood: Selected Writings 1969-2002 , page 256

Jung's implication here is clearly that one should try to forget that this is only a figment or fantasy, merely make-believe—or perhaps that one should forget the “only,” the “merely”—and indeed take the fantasy seriously as a reality.

Noun

(en noun)

A false belief that is resistant to confrontation with actual facts.

The state of being deluded or misled.

That which is falsely or delusively believed or propagated; false belief; error in belief.

* {{quote-book

, year=1960 , author=William L. Shirer , title=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany , page=835 , publisher=Simon & Schuster , location=New York , isbn=0-671-72869-5 , id=LCCN 81101072 , passage=Hess, always a muddled man though not so doltish as Rosenberg, flew on his own to Britain under the delusion that he could arrange a peace settlement.}} (Webster 1913)