Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Knowledge or information based on real occurrences.
- noun Something demonstrated to exist or known to have existed.
- noun A real occurrence; an event.
- noun Something believed to be true or real.
- noun A thing that has been done, especially a crime.
- noun Law A conclusion drawn by a judge or jury from the evidence in a case.
- idiom (in (point of) fact) In reality or in truth; actually.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Anything done; an act; a deed; a feat.
- noun A real state of things, as distinguished from a statement or belief; that in the real world agreement or disagreement with which makes a proposition true or false; a real inherence of an attribute in a substance, corresponding to the relation between the predicate and the subject of a proposition.
- noun In law, an actual or alleged physical or mental event or existence, as distinguished from a legal effect or consequence: as in the phrases matter of fact, question of fact, the facts of the case, as distinguished from matter of law, question of law, the law of the case.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete A doing, making, or preparing.
- noun An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance.
- noun Reality; actuality; truth
- noun 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.
- noun See under
Accessary . - noun an actual occurrence; a verity; used adjectively: of or pertaining to facts; prosaic; unimaginative.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun archaic
Action ; the realm of action. - noun A wrongful or criminal deed.
- noun obsolete
Feat . - noun An honest observation.
- noun Something actual as opposed to invented.
- noun Something which has become real.
- noun Something concrete used as a basis for further interpretation.
- noun An
objective consensus on afundamental reality that has been agreed upon by a substantial number of people. - noun Information about a particular subject.
- interjection Used before making a statement to introduce it as a trustworthy one.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a concept whose truth can be proved
- noun a piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred
- noun an event known to have happened or something known to have existed
- noun a statement or assertion of verified information about something that is the case or has happened
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The very fact that he himself is punished for something quite arguable ´bogus´ meaning ´fact´ instead of ´opinion´...is disproportionate, as calling a treatment bogus, can never be seen as a fact it would mean my doctor would give me a litteral bogus if i came for a prescription.
BCA v Singh: An Astonishingly Illiberal Ruling Jack of Kent 2009
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And again I believe that it will be led to its result very largely by what is, after all, perhaps the profoundest thought of Kant, the conviction that the most illuminating fact of all is the _fact_ of the absolute and unconditional obligatoriness of the law of right.
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From this conversation, together with previous ones, held with the same negro, and from after developments made to me at various places, and at different times, extending over a period of six weeks, I became acquainted with the fact -- and I _know_ it to be a _fact_ -- that there exists among the blacks a secret and wide-spread organization of a
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy Various
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In a Logic suitably reformed on this basis, it will be fitting to proclaim before all things this truth, and to draw from it all its consequences: the logical fact, _the only logical fact_, is _the concept_, the universal, the spirit that forms, and in so far as it forms, the universal.
Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic Benedetto Croce 1909
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They will accept the fact that "I-am-as-good-as-you-are" only when I prove it in brain, in brawn, in courtesy, in mental agility, in business acumen, in service -- in a word, _in fact_.
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The plain fact is, that such identities as these must indicate one of two things: a common tradition, locally modified by circumstances; or a _fact in nature_ or _history_, symbolically expressed in different ways according to the times and modes.
Commentary Upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex with a Concluding Note Upon the Linguistic Problem of the Maya Glyphs William Gates 1901
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Strangely, the most interesting fact (if _fact_ it be) that it builds a floating nest, gains scarcely more than chance notice from its historians.
Love's Meinie Three Lectures on Greek and English Birds John Ruskin 1859
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But the way in which such Appearance or fact shaped itself, -- what sort of _fact_ it became for him, -- was and is modified by his own laws of thinking; deep, subtle, but universal, ever-operating laws.
Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History Thomas Carlyle 1838
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We are sorry to differ from your Excellency, but, really, Sir, we cannot consider an acknowledgment of our independence as a subject to be treated about; for while we feel ourselves to be independent in fact, and know ourselves to be so of right, we can see but one cause from whence an acknowledgment of it can flow as an effect, viz. _the existence and truth of the fact_.
The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. VIII Jared Sparks 1827
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The truth is an important one; the fact (for it is a _fact_) is a valuable illustration of it.
Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems, 1800, Volume 1 William Wordsworth 1810
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