faction

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See also: -faction and fraction

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈfæk.ʃən/, /ˈfæk.ʃn̩/
    • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ækʃən

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Middle French faction, from Latin factiō (“a group of people acting together, a political faction”), noun of process from perfect passive participle factus, from faciō (“do, make”). Doublet of fashion.

Noun[edit]

faction (countable and uncountable, plural factions)

  1. (countable) A group of people, especially within a political organization, which expresses a shared belief or opinion different from people who are not part of the group.
    • 1748, David Hume, “Of Parties in General — How factions arise and contend.”, in Essays, Moral and Political:
      Real factions may be divided into those from interest, from principle, and from affection
  2. (uncountable) Strife; discord.
    • 1805, Johann Georg Cleminius, Englisches Lesebuch für Kaufleute, page 188:
      Publick [sic] affairs soon fell into the utmost confusion, and in this state of faction and perplexity, the island continued, until its re-capture by the French in 1779.
    • 2001, Odd Magne Bakke, "Concord and Peace": A Rhetorical Analysis of the First Letter of Clement With an Emphasis on the Language of Unity and Sedition, publ. Mohr Siebeck, →ISBN, page 89:
      He asks the audience if they believe that they will be more loved by the gods if the city is in a state of faction than if they govern the city with good order and concord.
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Terms etymologically related to faction (etymology 1)
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Blend of fact +‎ fiction.

Noun[edit]

faction (uncountable)

  2. (literature, film) A form of literature, film etc., that treats real people or events as if they were fiction; a mix of fact and fiction.
    • 1986 June 16, W. J. Weatherby, “Blind genius of faction”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      Blind genius of faction / Obituary of Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer [title]
    • 2000, Sue Vice, Holocaust Fiction, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 93:
      Contemporary reviewers offered different labels in attempts to describe the genre of Schindler's List. Lorna Sage, D.J. Enright and Robert Taubman called it a ‘documentary novel’; Paul Bailey and Gay Firth ‘faction’; […]
    • 2007 November 12, Mark Lawson, “The king of faction”, in The Guardian‎[2]:
      [Norman Mailer] was, though, absolutely the daddy of faction, his novels or journalism reporting every conflict from 1939 to Iraq and biographising Americans including John F Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali and Neil Armstrong.
  3. The facts found in fiction.
Derived terms[edit]
See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin factiōnem. Doublet of façon.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

faction f (plural factions)

  1. act of keeping watch
  2. a watchman
  3. (politics) a faction; specifically one which causes trouble

Further reading[edit]

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