factoid
English · Thesaurus
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
factoid
- /ˈfæk.tɔɪd/
Where it comes from
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".
noun factoids
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An inaccurate statement or statistic believed to be true because of broad repetition, especially if cited in the media.
Such hedging is necessitated by the lack of in-depth knowledge of the contents, which also gives free rein to the scripting of unsubstantiated factoids concerning the book.
Similar: misconception
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An interesting item of trivia; a minor fact.
Given a large enough storehouse of words and a fine filter, would it be possible to see cultural change at the micro level, to follow minute fluctuations in human thought processes and activities? Tiny factoids, multiplied endlessly, might assume imposing dimensions.
Similar: factlet
Translations
Talk about this word "factoid." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/factoid. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. factoid. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/factoid "factoid." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/factoid.Cite this
@misc{factoid_2026,
title = {factoid},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/factoid},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
