"roman à clef" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fr",
        "3": "roman à clef",
        "lit": "novel with a key"
      },
      "expansion": "French roman à clef (literally “novel with a key”)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from French roman à clef (literally “novel with a key”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "romans à clef",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "romans à clef",
        "nolinkhead": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "roman à clef (plural romans à clef)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 2 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Fiction",
          "orig": "en:Fiction",
          "parents": [
            "Artistic works",
            "Art",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Literary genres",
          "orig": "en:Literary genres",
          "parents": [
            "Fiction",
            "Genres",
            "Literature",
            "Artistic works",
            "Entertainment",
            "Culture",
            "Writing",
            "Art",
            "Society",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2007, A. Zurcher, Seventeenth-Century English Romance: Allegory, Ethics, and Politics, Springer, →ISBN, page 9:",
          "text": "I want to emphasize that in this respect my account of romance differs substantially from both Annabel Patterson's argument that the primary purpose of roman à clef in early modern England was to avoid censorship and Michael McKeon's […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Sean Latham, The Art of Scandal: Modernism, Libel Law, and the Roman à Clef, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 57:",
          "text": "In the end, the fragmentary nature of the text and Dora's abrupt decision to terminate her treatment indicate that as a narrative technology, the roman à clef fails. This owes less to the particulars of the individual case, however, than to Freud's […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, S. Nair, Secrecy and Sapphic Modernism: Writing Romans à Clef Between the Wars, Springer, →ISBN, page 23:",
          "text": "However, I would argue that this feature of the roman à clef need not be characterized as an impediment to interpretation. If the layered address contained in novels that encrypt references to the 'real' is acknowledged as itself a characteristic […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A piece of fiction, especially a novel, describing real-life people or events."
      ],
      "hypernyms": [
        {
          "word": "fictionalisation"
        },
        {
          "word": "fictionalization"
        }
      ],
      "id": "en-roman_à_clef-en-noun-0CZBZMWx",
      "links": [
        [
          "fiction",
          "fiction"
        ],
        [
          "novel",
          "novel#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "real-life",
          "real-life"
        ],
        [
          "people",
          "people"
        ],
        [
          "event",
          "event"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "film à clef"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɹoːˌmɑ̃aˈklej/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "roman à clef"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fr",
        "3": "roman à clef",
        "lit": "novel with a key"
      },
      "expansion": "French roman à clef (literally “novel with a key”)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from French roman à clef (literally “novel with a key”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "romans à clef",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "romans à clef",
        "nolinkhead": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "roman à clef (plural romans à clef)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hypernyms": [
    {
      "word": "fictionalisation"
    },
    {
      "word": "fictionalization"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "film à clef"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms borrowed from French",
        "English terms derived from French",
        "English terms spelled with À",
        "English terms spelled with ◌̀",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 2 entries",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Fiction",
        "en:Literary genres"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2007, A. Zurcher, Seventeenth-Century English Romance: Allegory, Ethics, and Politics, Springer, →ISBN, page 9:",
          "text": "I want to emphasize that in this respect my account of romance differs substantially from both Annabel Patterson's argument that the primary purpose of roman à clef in early modern England was to avoid censorship and Michael McKeon's […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Sean Latham, The Art of Scandal: Modernism, Libel Law, and the Roman à Clef, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 57:",
          "text": "In the end, the fragmentary nature of the text and Dora's abrupt decision to terminate her treatment indicate that as a narrative technology, the roman à clef fails. This owes less to the particulars of the individual case, however, than to Freud's […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, S. Nair, Secrecy and Sapphic Modernism: Writing Romans à Clef Between the Wars, Springer, →ISBN, page 23:",
          "text": "However, I would argue that this feature of the roman à clef need not be characterized as an impediment to interpretation. If the layered address contained in novels that encrypt references to the 'real' is acknowledged as itself a characteristic […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A piece of fiction, especially a novel, describing real-life people or events."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "fiction",
          "fiction"
        ],
        [
          "novel",
          "novel#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "real-life",
          "real-life"
        ],
        [
          "people",
          "people"
        ],
        [
          "event",
          "event"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɹoːˌmɑ̃aˈklej/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "roman à clef"
}