faction
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.
Noun
- 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.
- Real factions may be divided into those from interest, from principle, and from affection - 1748, David Hume, “Of Parties in General — How factions arise and contend.”, in Essays, Moral and Political:
- Prejudice has bred a counterprejudice so that now neither faction can nor will see without distortion. - 1971, Jesse J. Johnson, Black Armed Forces officers, 1736-1971:
- The Chinese Communist army in Kiangsi province has split into two factions struggling against each other following the purge of the "gang of four" led by Chiang Ching, according to an intelligence report from the...
Synonyms: fringe
- Strife; discord.
- 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. - 1805, Johann Georg Cleminius, Englisches...
- 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. - 2001, Odd Magne Bakke, "Concord and Peace":...
Origin
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.
Forms
Related
fact -faction factor factorial factory fashion splinter group
Derived
factional factionalize factionate factioneer factioner factionist factionless interfaction multifaction subfaction
Noun broadcasting, film
- A form of literature, film etc., that treats real people or events as if they were fiction; a mix of fact and fiction.
- Near-synonym: fictionalization
- Blind genius of faction / Obituary of Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer [title] - 1986 June 16, W. J. Weatherby, “Blind genius of faction”, in The Guardian:
- 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’;...
Synonyms: fictionalization
- The facts found in fiction.
Origin
Blend of fact + fiction.