Meanings
- rareuncountableliteratureFictional stories about non-humans, especially extraterrestrials.
[…] escape from their threatened warren and establish a new home has become a classic of xenofiction, a subgenre of science fiction encompassing stories set among species or cultures dramatically different from humanity or human society.
2006, Christopher Harter, Anthony Tedeschi, Jodine Perkins, Places of the Imagination: A Celebration of Worlds, Islands, and Realms, Bloomington, Ind.: Lilly Library, →ISBN, page 64 - rareuncountableliteratureFiction written from the point of view of a non-human character.
Raise your hand if you love xenofiction! There’s something about experiencing the world through non-human eyes that makes just about any plot more exciting to me.
2018 February 24, Lydia Schoch, “Saturday Seven: Non-Human Protagonists”, in lydiaschoch.com
Origin
- Proto-Hellenic*ksénwos
- Ancient Greekξένϝος (xénwos)
- Ancient Greekξένος (xénos)
- Englishxeno-
- Proto-Indo-European*dʰeyǵʰ-
- Proto-Indo-European*dʰinéǵʰti
- Proto-Italic*θingō
- Proto-Italic*fingō
- Latinfingō
- Latinfictiō
- Old Frenchficcion
- Middle Englishficcioun
- Englishfiction
- Englishxenofiction
Cite this entry
xenofiction. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/xenofiction
“xenofiction.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/xenofiction. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “xenofiction,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/xenofiction.
Source: xenofiction on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.