you can't make this stuff up in English

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{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "you can't make this stuff up",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "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",
      "links": [
        [
          "aside",
          "aside"
        ],
        [
          "reality",
          "reality"
        ],
        [
          "unbelievable",
          "unbelievable"
        ]
      ],
      "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"
        },
        {
          "word": "you couldn't make it up"
        }
      ],
      "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"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "you can't make this stuff up",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The reality is so bizarre, ironic, or comically coincidental as to be unbelievable."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "aside",
          "aside"
        ],
        [
          "reality",
          "reality"
        ],
        [
          "unbelievable",
          "unbelievable"
        ]
      ],
      "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"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "you couldn't make it up"
    }
  ],
  "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"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.

"you can't make this stuff up" meaning in English

Phrase