Meaning & use
factoid
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Meanings
nouncountableinformal
A short, interesting piece of information, often shared to surprise or entertain people.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a factoid' or 'several factoids'.
Patterns
- a factoid about something
- share a factoid
- a fun factoid
She loves sharing factoids about space at dinner parties.
Here's a factoid: octopuses have three hearts.
The article was full of fun factoids about the history of chocolate.
nouncountabledisapprovingformal
A false or unverified statement that is repeated so often that people accept it as true.
Grammar: This older meaning is common in careful writing about media and politics.
Patterns
- repeat a factoid
- a misleading factoid
The report was criticized for repeating a factoid that had been disproved years ago.
Politicians often spread factoids that sound convincing but have no evidence.
Word forms
| plural | factoids |
|---|
Common combinations
- a fun factoid
- He told us a fun factoid about the Eiffel Tower.
- share a factoid
- She shared a factoid about bees on social media.
- a factoid about
- I learned a factoid about the human brain yesterday.
- spread a factoid
- The rumor spread as a factoid online.
Synonyms and how they differ
- trivia
- Trivia means small, unimportant facts in general; a factoid is one single interesting item.
- tidbit
- A tidbit is a small piece of interesting news or gossip; a factoid is usually a factual-sounding item.
- myth
- A myth is a widely held false belief; a factoid can be true or false depending on the sense.
Word family
Commonly confused: factoid or fact?
factoid vs fact
A fact is definitely true, while a factoid may be trivial, interesting, or even false.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'factoid' in its most common modern sense?
Choose one answer.
In modern use, a factoid is a short, interesting fact, so option 1 fits. Option 0 uses the older 'false claim' sense, option 2 is too long to be a factoid, and option 3 is a summary, not a factoid.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “factoid”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.