faction

• IPA^(key): /ˈfæk.ʃən/, /ˈfæk.ʃn̩/

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• Rhymes: -ækʃən

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.

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.

• factional
• factionalize

• splinter group

Blend of fact +‎ fiction.

faction (uncountable)

1. (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:

     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:

     [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.

2. The facts found in fiction.

• science faction

• nonfiction novel

• non-fiction novel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from Latin factiōnem. Doublet of façon.

• IPA^(key): /fak.sjɔ̃/

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faction f (plural factions)

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

• “faction”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.