Having shown how to do science without using numbers, Field proceeded to rehabilitate mathematics as a kind of useful fiction.

But the king's presence was a useful fiction in establishing a suitable royal image.

Nevertheless, it's a useful fiction - for writers and readers alike.

The lie made me shake with humiliation, but the doctor collaborated in this mutually useful fiction.

But this is a remote, ironic return that accepts that it is a useful fiction.

The notion of religion as a "useful fiction" is not a new one, of course.

True, the man does find some dogma a useful fiction.

Eccentrics and epicycles came to be thought of as useful fictions.

That's nonsense, of course; but it's a useful fiction.

Although her birthdate is generally given as 1820, this may have been a useful fiction, as baptism records give the 1811 date.