See you can't make this stuff up in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "Used to describe a situation so outlandish or ridiculous that one could not have imagined it.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "you can't make this up",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "you couldn't make it up",
"tags": [
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},
{
"form": "you couldn't make this up",
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},
{
"form": "you can't make this shit up",
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{
"form": "you couldn't make this shit up",
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"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "phrase",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "30 70",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
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"_dis": "34 66",
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154
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"ref": "2011, “Daddy Issues”, in The Vampire Diaries, spoken by Jenna Sommers (Sara Canning):",
"text": "I can't believe it. Elena is my sister's husband's brother's daughter, and her mother is my boyfriend's deceased wife. You... you can't make this stuff up.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The reality is so bizarre, ironic, or comically coincidental as to be unbelievable."
],
"id": "en-you_can't_make_this_stuff_up-en-phrase-95Zj6MoO",
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[
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[
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],
"raw_glosses": [
"(often as an aside) The reality is so bizarre, ironic, or comically coincidental as to be unbelievable."
],
"raw_tags": [
"as an aside"
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "fact is stranger than fiction"
},
{
"word": "truth is stranger than fiction"
}
],
"tags": [
"often"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "en keksinyt tätä päästäni"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "ça ne s’invente pas"
}
]
}
],
"word": "you can't make this stuff up"
}
{
"etymology_text": "Used to describe a situation so outlandish or ridiculous that one could not have imagined it.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "you can't make this up",
"tags": [
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},
{
"form": "you couldn't make it up",
"tags": [
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},
{
"form": "you couldn't make this up",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "you can't make this shit up",
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},
{
"form": "you couldn't make this shit up",
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"senses": [
{
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"Used to express how ironically unbelievable or ridiculous a situation is."
],
"id": "en-you_can't_make_this_stuff_up-en-intj-GbROw6ip",
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"word": "you can't make this stuff up"
}
{
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"Terms with French translations",
"Translation table header lacks gloss"
],
"etymology_text": "Used to describe a situation so outlandish or ridiculous that one could not have imagined it.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "you can't make this up",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "you couldn't make it up",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "you couldn't make this up",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "you can't make this shit up",
"tags": [
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{
"form": "you couldn't make this shit up",
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"ref": "2011, “Daddy Issues”, in The Vampire Diaries, spoken by Jenna Sommers (Sara Canning):",
"text": "I can't believe it. Elena is my sister's husband's brother's daughter, and her mother is my boyfriend's deceased wife. You... you can't make this stuff up.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The reality is so bizarre, ironic, or comically coincidental as to be unbelievable."
],
"links": [
[
"aside",
"aside"
],
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"reality",
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],
[
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"(often as an aside) The reality is so bizarre, ironic, or comically coincidental as to be unbelievable."
],
"raw_tags": [
"as an aside"
],
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{
"word": "fact is stranger than fiction"
},
{
"word": "truth is stranger than fiction"
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],
"tags": [
"often"
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}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "en keksinyt tätä päästäni"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "ça ne s’invente pas"
}
],
"word": "you can't make this stuff up"
}
{
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"English interjections",
"English lemmas",
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"English phrases",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Translation table header lacks gloss"
],
"etymology_text": "Used to describe a situation so outlandish or ridiculous that one could not have imagined it.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "you can't make this up",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "you couldn't make it up",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "you couldn't make this up",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "you can't make this shit up",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "you couldn't make this shit up",
"tags": [
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"name": "en-interj"
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],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "intj",
"senses": [
{
"glosses": [
"Used to express how ironically unbelievable or ridiculous a situation is."
],
"links": [
[
"express",
"express#English"
]
]
}
],
"word": "you can't make this stuff up"
}
Download raw JSONL data for you can't make this stuff up meaning in English (3.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-20 using wiktextract (3dadd05 and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.