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”).

* IPA(key): /fækt/ * Rhymes: -ækt

FACT (_plural_ FACTS) * (archaic) Action; the realm of action. * (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._ * (obsolete) Feat. * An honest observation. * Something actual as opposed to invented. _In this story, the Gettysburg Address is a FACT, but the rest is fiction._ * Something which has become real. _The promise of television became a FACT in the 1920s._ * Something concrete used as a basis for further interpretation. _Let's look at the FACTS of the case before deciding._ * 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._ * Information about a particular subject, especially actual conditions and/or circumstances. _The FACTS about space travel._ ANTONYMS * (Something actual): fiction DERIVED TERMS RELATED TERMS TRANSLATIONS SEE ALSO * value * opinion * belief EXTERNAL LINKS * fact in _Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary_, G. & C. Merriam, 1913 * fact in _The Century Dictionary_, The Century Co., New York, 1911

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

* acft