Crossword clues for factoid
factoid
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1973, "published statement taken to be a fact because of its appearance in print," from fact + -oid, first explained, if not coined, by Norman Mailer.Factoids ... that is, facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority. [Mailer, "Marilyn," 1973]\nBy 1988 it was being used in the sense of "small, isolated bit of true factual information."
Wiktionary
n. 1 An inaccurate statement or statistic believed to be true because of broad repetition, especially if cited in the media. 2 An interesting item of trivia.
WordNet
n. something resembling a fact; unverified (often invented) information that is given credibility because it appeared in print
a brief (usually one sentence and usually trivial) news item
Wikipedia
The term factoid can in common usage mean either a false or spurious statement presented as a fact, as well as (according to Merriam Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary) a true, if brief or trivial item of news or information. The term was coined originally in 1973 as a neologism by American writer Norman Mailer to mean a "piece of information that becomes accepted as a fact even though it’s not actually true, or an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print." Since its creation in 1973 the term has evolved from its original meaning, in common usage, and has assumed other meanings, particularly being used to describe a brief or trivial item of news or information. So it is a factoid that "factoid" means something that is true.
Usage examples of "factoid".
The chief analyst was taking a single factoid of hard information and spinning it into a complete soap opera.
But one thing was clear: If the mother had told the cops that the daughter had called about being threatened the night before she was run down, the cops would have buried that little factoid deep indeed and opened a homicide file.
He had, both as man and boy, been a huge fan of Batman, aka the Caped Crusader he suspected, in fact, that the Batman was one of the reasons he had become a cop (this was a little factoid he hadn't bothered to put on his application).
In any case, it was Factoid, Rarities Unlimited's very own computer guru, who had done the hacking.
He made himself look away, scanning the lobby for someone who was glancing at them too often or who looked like the file photo of Ed Heller that Factoid had sent as a .
He made himself look away, scanning the lobby for someone who was glancing at them too often or who looked like the file photo of Ed Heller that Factoid had sent as a jpeg.
Factoid, aka Joseph Robert (Joe-Bob) McCoy, was the Rarities computer expert and the completely wired twentyfirst-century man.
What do I know that Factoid can’t find in his databases or his terrifying brain?