Fact

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fækt/
• Rhymes: -ækt

Origin

From Latin factum ("a deed, act, exploit; in Medieval Latin also state, condition, circumstance"), neuter of factus ("done or made"), perfect passive participle of faciō ("do, make").

Full definition of fact

Noun

1. (archaic) Action; the realm of action.
• 1622, Francis Bacon, The History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh, After that Richard, the third of that name, king in fact only, but tyrant both in title and regiment...was...overthrown and slain at Bosworth Field; there succeeded in the kingdom...Henry the Seventh.
2. (legal, obsolete except in set phrases) A wrongful or criminal deed.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ix:She was empassiond at that piteous act,
  With zelous enuy of Greekes cruell fact,
  Against that nation ....
3. He had become an accessory after the fact.
4. (obsolete) Feat.
• 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, When he who most excels in fact of arms,
5. An honest observation.
6. Something actual as opposed to invented.
   In this story, the Gettysburg Address is a fact, but the rest is fiction.
• 1922, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest Chapter 2, Mother...considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres.
7. Something which has become real.
   The promise of television became a fact in the 1920s.
8. Something concrete used as a basis for further interpretation.
   Let's look at the facts of the case before deciding.
9. An objective consensus on a fundamental reality that has been agreed upon by a substantial number of people.
   There is no doubting the fact that the Earth orbits the Sun.
10. Information about a particular subject, especially actual conditions and/or circumstances.
    The facts about space travel.

Antonyms

• (Something actual) fiction

Derived terms

Related terms

Interjection

1. Used before making a statement to introduce it as a trustworthy one.

Anagrams

• acft