fact
fact Lexical Profile
fact Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A thing that is indisputably the case; an objective event, state of affairs, or piece of information known to be true through empirical observation or verifiable evidence.
"It is a well-established scientific fact that water boils at one hundred degrees Celsius at standard atmospheric pressure."
Truth or actual existence as opposed to interpretation, supposition, or imagination (usually used as an uncountable noun).
"The biographer worked diligently to separate historical fact from centuries of local legend."
In law, the truth about events or actions as opposed to the legal principles applied to them, or an unlawful act or crime that has been committed (preserved in phrases such as 'question of fact' or 'after the fact').
"In a trial by jury, the jury determines questions of fact while the judge rules on questions of law."
• Rhymes for fact
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 15th century from Latin factum ('an event, occurrence, or deed'), originally the neuter past participle of facere ('to do' or 'to make'). Its earliest English sense was 'an action or deed' (surviving in legal phrases like 'after the fact'), before shifting in the 17th century to mean an objective, verifiable truth.