factual
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to facts; concerning facts.
factual accuracy.
-
based on or restricted to facts.
a factual report.
adjective
-
of, relating to, or characterized by facts
-
of the nature of fact; real; actual
Other Word Forms
- factualism noun
- factualist noun
- factualistic adjective
- factuality noun
- factually adverb
- factualness noun
- nonfactual adjective
- nonfactually adverb
- unfactual adjective
- unfactually adverb
Etymology
Origin of factual
First recorded in 1825–35; fact + -ual, after actual or effectual
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
AI has a somewhat dubious reputation in the legal world, where lawyers in recent months have drawn ridicule and reprimand for submitting briefs riddled with citations to fictional cases and factual errors.
The factual parallels between these two cases are striking.
Depending on the persona or context used in prompting large language models, current models subtly tilt toward particular positions – even when factual accuracy remains intact.
From Salon
When asked what happened he always replied with factual precision and modesty.
We validated that these circuits controlled honesty more broadly: The same neural features that determine whether models claim consciousness also control whether they lie about factual questions.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
