faction
Pluralfactions
- 1A group of people, especially within a political organization, that shares a belief or opinion setting it apart from those outside the group.
The reform faction broke away after losing the vote on tax policy.
Competing factions inside the coalition blocked every attempt at compromise.
Similarfringe
Note
A word for people who act together. It comes from Latin factiō, from faciō "do, make", and is a doublet of fashion, which grew from the same Latin source. David Hume in 1748 sorts factions into those from interest, from principle, and from affection. It is countable (rival factions, two factions) and usually names a group inside a larger body, such as a party or an army, rather than one standing apart from it.
- 2A form of literature, film, or similar work that presents real people or events as though they were fiction; a blend of fact and fiction.
Her latest novel is faction, dramatizing a famous trial with fictional witnesses.
Television faction often reconstructs historical events with scripted conversations.
Similardocudrama
Note
This word is a blend of fact and fiction, so it is unrelated to the political group, which descends from Latin factiō. The two simply share a spelling. Critics use it as a genre label: some reviewers called Schindler's List faction where others said documentary novel, and Mark Lawson in The Guardian named Norman Mailer "the king of faction" in 2007. It is uncountable, so a work is faction, not a faction.
- 3Bitter conflict and disagreement between rival sides, especially within a single state, community, or organization.
The republic finally collapsed under the weight of faction and civil unrest.
Faction within the guild paralyzed its leadership for a decade.
Similarinfighting, factionalism, dissension, discord, strife
Oppositeunity, harmony, accord, solidarity
Note
Here the word names a condition rather than a group: not a faction but the strife that factions bring. Its characteristic phrase is in a state of faction, used in Johann Georg Cleminius's Englisches Lesebuch für Kaufleute (1805) and in Odd Magne Bakke's "Concord and Peace" (2001), where it stands opposite concord and good order. Use it without an article. Add one and it becomes the dissenting group.
- 4The real, factual material that appears within a work of fiction.
Critics praised the faction underpinning the novel, noting its accurate period detail.
Beneath the invented romance lies solid faction drawn from wartime records.
Similarfact
Note
The blend behind the genre meaning, turned inward. That meaning calls a whole book or film faction, but this one names only the true material inside an invented story, such as its real events and documented detail. Context keeps them apart: a novel that is faction is a hybrid, while a novel's faction is its facts.
Practice
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Origins
Borrowed from Middle French 'faction', from Latin 'factio' (a group of people acting together, a political faction), a noun formed from 'factus', the participle of 'facio' (do, make). It is a doublet of 'fashion'.
A blend of 'fact' and 'fiction'.