flash fiction

Meanings

nounflash fiction (countable and uncountable, plural flash fictions)

countableA fictional story that is briefer than typical short stories.
Synonyms: drabble, flashfic, short short story, sudden fiction
uncountableThe genre of such stories.
Even those stories range from short-short, "sudden," or "flash" fiction of just three to five pages to more conventionally constructed stories than run nearly twenty pages.
1997, Ron McFarland, “Another Kind of Violence: Sherman Alexie's Poems”, in American Indian Quarterly, volume 21, number 2, page 259
Synonyms: flashfic, microfiction, sudden fiction

nounA fictional story that is briefer than typical short stories.

nounThe genre of such stories.

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APA

flash fiction. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flash%20fiction

MLA

“flash fiction.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flash%20fiction. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “flash fiction,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flash%20fiction.