"factoid" meaning in English

See factoid in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈfæk.tɔɪd/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-factoid.wav [Southern-England] Forms: factoids [plural]
Etymology: From fact + -oid (“similar, but not the same”); coined by American writer Norman Mailer in 1973 in Marilyn: A Biography, defined as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority". Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|fact|oid|gloss2=similar, but not the same}} fact + -oid (“similar, but not the same”), {{coin|en|Norman Mailer|in=1973|nat=American|nobycat=1|nocap=1|occ=writer}} coined by American writer Norman Mailer in 1973 Head templates: {{en-noun}} factoid (plural factoids)
  1. An inaccurate statement or statistic believed to be true because of broad repetition, especially if cited in the media. Synonyms: misconception Translations (inaccurate statement believed to be true): näennäistotuus (Finnish), factoide [masculine] (Portuguese), factoide [masculine] (Spanish), faktoid [common-gender] (Swedish), vandringssägen [common-gender] (Swedish), klintbergare [common-gender, informal] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-factoid-en-noun-xqy34JwY Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English terms suffixed with -oid Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 58 42 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 52 48 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -oid: 46 54 Disambiguation of 'inaccurate statement believed to be true': 92 8
  2. (originally Canada, US) An interesting item of trivia; a minor fact. Tags: US Synonyms: factlet
    Sense id: en-factoid-en-noun-LnO8s2DZ Categories (other): American English, Canadian English, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English terms suffixed with -oid Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 52 48 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -oid: 46 54
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: verisimilitude

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for factoid meaning in English (5.2kB)

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        "3": "oid",
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          "_dis1": "92 8",
          "code": "fi",
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          "sense": "inaccurate statement believed to be true",
          "word": "näennäistotuus"
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          "code": "pt",
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          "sense": "inaccurate statement believed to be true",
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          "ref": "2013 December 24, William Grimes, “Big Data Becomes a Mirror”, in New York Times",
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        "An inaccurate statement or statistic believed to be true because of broad repetition, especially if cited in the media."
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      ],
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      ],
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "inaccurate statement believed to be true",
      "word": "näennäistotuus"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "inaccurate statement believed to be true",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "factoide"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "inaccurate statement believed to be true",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "factoide"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "inaccurate statement believed to be true",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "faktoid"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "inaccurate statement believed to be true",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
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    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "inaccurate statement believed to be true",
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      ],
      "word": "klintbergare"
    }
  ],
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  ],
  "word": "factoid"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 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.

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