"truth is stranger than fiction" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Attributed to Lord Byron.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb"
      },
      "expansion": "truth is stranger than fiction",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English quotations with omitted translation",
          "parents": [
            "Quotations with omitted translation",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1989, B. A. Ramsbottom, Stranger Than Fiction: The Life of William Kiffin, Gospel Standard Publications, page 7",
          "text": "It has often been said that truth is stranger than fiction. But what writer of the most extravagant fiction could have thought up such a life as that of William Kiffin? A poor orphan becoming one of the wealthiest merchants in the country; […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Nicholas Rescher, Imagining Irreality: A Study of Unreal Possibilities, Open Court Publishing, page 239",
          "text": "In the end, truth is stranger than fiction: reality has more complications, more unanticipable twists and turns than fiction could ever imagine.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Sometimes actual events are stranger than imagined ones."
      ],
      "id": "en-truth_is_stranger_than_fiction-en-proverb-f0ZNKvWy",
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "life imitates art"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "fact is stranger than fiction"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "sometimes actual events are stranger than imagined ones",
          "word": "totuus on tarua ihmeellisempää"
        },
        {
          "code": "ga",
          "lang": "Irish",
          "sense": "sometimes actual events are stranger than imagined ones",
          "word": "is iontaí fírinne ná finscéal"
        },
        {
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "jijitsu wa shōsetsu yori ki nari",
          "sense": "sometimes actual events are stranger than imagined ones",
          "word": "事実は小説より奇なり"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "sometimes actual events are stranger than imagined ones",
          "word": "la realidad supera a la ficción"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Don Juan (poem)",
        "Lord Byron"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "truth is stranger than fiction"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Attributed to Lord Byron.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb"
      },
      "expansion": "truth is stranger than fiction",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "life imitates art"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "English quotations with omitted translation",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1989, B. A. Ramsbottom, Stranger Than Fiction: The Life of William Kiffin, Gospel Standard Publications, page 7",
          "text": "It has often been said that truth is stranger than fiction. But what writer of the most extravagant fiction could have thought up such a life as that of William Kiffin? A poor orphan becoming one of the wealthiest merchants in the country; […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Nicholas Rescher, Imagining Irreality: A Study of Unreal Possibilities, Open Court Publishing, page 239",
          "text": "In the end, truth is stranger than fiction: reality has more complications, more unanticipable twists and turns than fiction could ever imagine.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Sometimes actual events are stranger than imagined ones."
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Don Juan (poem)",
        "Lord Byron"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "fact is stranger than fiction"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "sometimes actual events are stranger than imagined ones",
      "word": "totuus on tarua ihmeellisempää"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "sometimes actual events are stranger than imagined ones",
      "word": "is iontaí fírinne ná finscéal"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "jijitsu wa shōsetsu yori ki nari",
      "sense": "sometimes actual events are stranger than imagined ones",
      "word": "事実は小説より奇なり"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "sometimes actual events are stranger than imagined ones",
      "word": "la realidad supera a la ficción"
    }
  ],
  "word": "truth is stranger than fiction"
}