Meaning & use
nonfactual
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparable
Not based on facts or real events; containing things that are not true or cannot be checked.
Grammar: Describes a thing such as a statement, story, or report, not a person: a nonfactual article.
Patterns
- nonfactual claims
- a nonfactual statement
- largely nonfactual
The review was entertaining but almost completely nonfactual.
Teachers asked students to separate factual reporting from nonfactual opinion pieces.
His memoir is full of vivid but nonfactual details.
adjectivenot comparableformal
Not concerned with facts; treating facts as unimportant.
Grammar: Used about a style of writing or thinking rather than a single claim: a nonfactual approach.
Patterns
- a nonfactual approach
- nonfactual reasoning
The debate drifted into a nonfactual discussion about feelings and impressions.
Their nonfactual approach to history annoyed the examiners.
Common combinations
- nonfactual claims
- The ad made several nonfactual claims about the product.
- a nonfactual statement
- The editor removed a nonfactual statement from the article.
- wholly nonfactual
- The report was shown to be wholly nonfactual.
- nonfactual content
- The site labels nonfactual content so readers can judge it.
Synonyms and how they differ
- untrue
- Focuses on something being false, while nonfactual can also mean simply not dealing with facts at all.
- inaccurate
- Suggests small errors rather than a complete lack of factual basis.
- fictional
- Means invented on purpose and openly presented as a story, not as truth.
Opposites
Word family
- factual adjective
- Based on facts; the direct opposite in form.
- factually adverb
- In a way that is based on facts: factually correct.
- nonfactually adverb
- In a way that is not based on facts; rare and mainly in formal writing.
Commonly confused: nonfactual or fictional?
nonfactual vs fictional
Fictional means deliberately invented as a story; nonfactual means not grounded in facts, which may be careless rather than creative.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'nonfactual' most naturally?
Choose one answer.
'Nonfactual' describes statements or content, so 'nonfactual claims' fits. Option 0 sounds odd because we usually call a person inaccurate or unreliable, not nonfactual, and option 3 confuses it with a word about physical objects.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “nonfactual”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.