factual

Etymology

It is formed from English fact + -ual, on the model of actual;^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Dictionary.com names effectual as a model too.^[7] fact is factum (“a deed, a thing done”), the neuter past participle of faciō (“to do”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relating to facts, of the nature of fact: 1820–32, in Coleridge's Marginalia.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1834,^[3][5] and Dictionary.com to 1825–35.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The sense "having a basis in fact, accurate, real" is recorded from 1846, in De Quincey.^[2] From 1855 the factual was used as a noun for that which is factual, actuality.^[2] The Shorter Oxford dates the word to the mid 19th century.^[6] In 1941 it was first applied to films, and later mainly to television programmes, that are documentary rather than fictional.^[2]

Timeline

• 1820–32 – relating to facts, in Coleridge.^[2]
• 1834 – Etymonline's and Merriam-Webster's date.^[3][5]
• 1846 – based on fact, accurate, real.^[2]
• 1855 – the factual, actuality.^[2]
• 1941 – of films and television, documentary.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, concerned with or made up of facts: a factual report of the meeting.^[9][5][2]
2. Based on fact; real, actual or accurate.^[9][2]
3. Of films or television programmes: documentary, not fictional.^[2]

Word family

• factuality
• factually
• factualness
• counterfactual
• factualism
• nonfactual
• unfactual

Related words

• de facto
• fact
• facticity
• factive
• actual
• effectual
• factitious

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins