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Webster 1913 Edition


Fact

Fact

(făkt)
,
Noun.
[L.
factum
, fr.
facere
to make or do. Cf.
Feat
,
Affair
,
Benefit
,
Defect
,
Fashion
, and
-fy
.]
1.
A doing, making, or preparing.
[Obs.]
A project for the
fact
and vending
Of a new kind of fucus, paint for ladies.
B. Jonson.
2.
An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance.
What might instigate him to this devilish
fact
, I am not able to conjecture.
Evelyn.
He who most excels in
fact
of arms.
Milton.
3.
Reality; actuality; truth;
as, he, in
fact
, excelled all the rest; the
fact
is, he was beaten.
4.
The assertion or statement of a thing done or existing; sometimes, even when false, improperly put, by a transfer of meaning, for the thing done, or supposed to be done; a thing supposed or asserted to be done;
as, history abounds with false
facts
.
I do not grant the
fact
.
De Foe.
This reasoning is founded upon a
fact
which is not true.
Roger Long.
☞ The term fact has in jurisprudence peculiar uses in contrast with law; as, attorney at law, and attorney in fact; issue in law, and issue in fact. There is also a grand distinction between law and fact with reference to the province of the judge and that of the jury, the latter generally determining the fact, the former the law.
Burrill
Bouvier.
Syn. – Act; deed; performance; event; incident; occurrence; circumstance.

Webster 1828 Edition


Fact

FACT

,
Noun.
[L. factum, from facio, to make or do.]
1.
Any thing done, or that comes to pass; an act; a deed; an effect produced or achieved; an event. Witnesses are introduced into court to prove a fact. Facts are stubborn things. To deny a fact knowingly is to lie.
2.
Reality; truth; as, in fact. So we say, indeed.

Definition 2024


fact

fact

See also: FACT

English

Noun

fact (plural facts)

  1. (archaic) Action; the realm of action.
    • 1622, Francis Bacon, The History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh, page 1:
      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. (law, 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 [...].
    He had become an accessory after the fact.
  3. (obsolete) Feat.
  4. An honest observation.
  5. Something actual as opposed to invented.
    In this story, the Gettysburg Address is a fact, but the rest is fiction.
    • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:
      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.
  6. Something which is real.
    Gravity is a fact, not a theory.
  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 experts.
    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

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

External links

  • fact in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • fact in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Interjection

fact

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

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: least · person · case · #313: fact · known · thee · hope

Anagrams