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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Fact \Fact\ (f[a^]kt), noun [L. factum, fr. facere to make or do. Cf. {Feat}, {Affair}, {Benefit}, {Defect}, {Fashion}, and {-fy}.]
1. A doing, making, or preparing. [Obs.]
A project for the fact and vending Of a new kind of fucus, paint for ladies. --B. Jonson.
2. An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance.
What might instigate him to this devilish fact, I am not able to conjecture. --Evelyn.
He who most excels in fact of arms. --Milton.
3. Reality; actuality; truth; as, he, in fact, excelled all the rest; the fact is, he was beaten.
4. 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; as, history abounds with false facts.
I do not grant the fact. --De Foe.
This reasoning is founded upon a fact which is not true. --Roger Long.
Note: The term fact has in jurisprudence peculiar uses in contrast with law; as, attorney at law, and attorney in fact; issue in law, and issue in fact. There is also a grand distinction between law and fact with reference to the province of the judge and that of the jury, the latter generally determining the fact, the former the law. --Burrill --Bouvier.
{Accessary before the fact}, or {Accessary after the fact}. See under {Accessary}.
{Matter of fact}, an actual occurrence; a verity; used adjectively: of or pertaining to facts; prosaic; unimaginative; as, a matter-of-fact narration.
Syn: Act; deed; performance; event; incident; occurrence; circumstance.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
fact
noun
1: a piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred; "first you must collect all the facts of the case"
2: a statement or assertion of verified information about something that is the case or has happened; "he supported his argument with an impressive array of facts"
3: an event known to have happened or something known to have existed; "your fears have no basis in fact"; "how much of the story is fact and how much fiction is hard to tell"
4: a concept whose truth can be proved; "scientific hypotheses are not facts"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
140 Moby Thesaurus words for "fact": absolute fact, accepted fact, accomplishment, act, actual fact, actuality, actually, admitted fact, adventure, article, aspect, authenticity, axiom, bald fact, bare fact, basis for belief, body of evidence, brutal fact, case, certainty, chain of evidence, circumstance, clue, cold fact, conceded fact, count, data, datum, deed, demonstrable fact, detail, details, documentation, element, empirical fact, episode, established fact, eternal verities, event, evidence, exhibit, experience, facet, fact of experience, factor, factors, facts, factually, fait accompli, genuineness, given fact, good sooth, grounds, grounds for belief, hap, happening, happenstance, hard fact, historical truth, historicity, in fact, in reality, in truth, incident, incidental, indeed, indication, indisputable fact, inescapable fact, information, instance, item, item of evidence, items, low-down, manifestation, mark, material grounds, matter, matter of fact, minor detail, minutia, minutiae, muniments, mute witness, naked fact, not guesswork, not opinion, observable, occasion, occurrence, particular, particulars, phenomenon, piece of evidence, plain, point, points, positive fact, postulate, premises, proof, provable fact, reality, really, reason to believe, regard, relevant fact, respect, salient fact, self-evident fact, sign, significant fact, simple fact, sober fact, sooth, stubborn fact, symptom, the case, the nitty-gritty, the score, the true, thing, to be sure, token, trueness, truly, truth, truthfully, truthfulness, turn of events, ultimate truth, undeniable fact, unerroneousness, unfallaciousness, unfalseness, veracity, verity, very truth, well-known fact
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
FACT {Fully Automated Compiling Technique}
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
fact The kind of {clause} used in {logic programming} which has no {subgoals} and so is always true (always succeeds). E.g. wet(water). male(denis). This is in contrast to a {rule} which only succeeds if all its subgoals do. Rules usually contain {logic variables}, facts rarely do, except for oddities like "equal(X,X).". (1996-10-20)
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |