# faction

Pronunciation: US say "FAK-shuhn" /ˈfæk.ʃən/; UK

## Noun

1. A group of people, especially within a political organization, that shares a belief or opinion setting it apart from those outside the group.
   - Simple: A small group within a larger one, often political, that shares its own beliefs and stands apart from the rest.
   - _The reform faction broke away after losing the vote on tax policy._
   - _Competing factions inside the coalition blocked every attempt at compromise._
2. A form of literature, film, or similar work that presents real people or events as though they were fiction; a blend of fact and fiction.
   - Simple: A kind of story that mixes real people or events with made-up parts.
   - _Her latest novel is faction, dramatizing a famous trial with fictional witnesses._
   - _Television faction often reconstructs historical events with scripted conversations._
3. Bitter conflict and disagreement between rival sides, especially within a single state, community, or organization.
   - Simple: Angry disagreement that splits a group into sides that fight each other.
   - _The republic finally collapsed under the weight of faction and civil unrest._
   - _Faction within the guild paralyzed its leadership for a decade._
4. The real, factual material that appears within a work of fiction.
   - Simple: The true facts that appear inside a made-up story.
   - _Critics praised the faction underpinning the novel, noting its accurate period detail._
   - _Beneath the invented romance lies solid faction drawn from wartime records._

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 3** — 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'.
**Meanings 2, 4** — A blend of 'fact' and 'fiction'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/faction (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).