factoid

From fact +‎ -oid (“similar, but not the same”); coined by American writer Norman Mailer in 1973 in Marilyn: A Biography, defined as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority".

• IPA^(key): /ˈfæk.tɔɪd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

factoid (plural factoids)

1. An inaccurate statement or statistic believed to be true because of broad repetition, especially if cited in the media. [from 1973]

   Synonym: misconception

   Coordinate term: urban legend

   • 2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 487:

     Such hedging is necessitated by the lack of in-depth knowledge of the contents, which also gives free rein to the scripting of unsubstantiated factoids concerning the book.

   • 2025 September 30, Larry Sanger, “6. Reveal who Wikipedia’s leaders are.”, in larrysanger.org‎^[1]:

     Wikipedia-derived factoids can be so important that there is a well-known feedback loop, called citogenesis, in which the mainstream news finds some claim made in a Wikipedia article, and publishes it (without citing Wikipedia). Then Wikipedia itself makes use of the news article. By means of this loop, an ultimately “sourceless” factoid gains a spurious authority.

2. (originally Canada, US) An interesting item of trivia; a minor fact.

   Synonym: factlet

   • 2013 December 24, William Grimes, “Big Data Becomes a Mirror”, in The New York Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 12 November 2020:

     Given a large enough storehouse of words and a fine filter, would it be possible to see cultural change at the micro level, to follow minute fluctuations in human thought processes and activities? Tiny factoids, multiplied endlessly, might assume imposing dimensions.

   • 2013, Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

     Don't parade in front of the audience spewing every factoid you know on your topic. Only share the right information for that exact moment with that specific audience.

The more recent and contradictory meaning “minor fact” is gradually supplanting the original sense.^[1][2]

• verisimilitude

• “factoid”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• factoid on Wikipedia.Wikipedia