factitious
/fækˈtɪʃəs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.76 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Created by humans; artificial.
Example Sentences
- "[...] if from erosion of the gums, by such things as restore them, strengthen and bind them; if wanting, it may be helped by the factitious; their ſordes are removed, by washing and cleaning them; and their blacknesse, by dentifrices."
- "Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them."
- "Manners are partly factitious, but, mainly, there must be capacity for culture in the blood. Else all culture is vain."
- "[…] To prevent a prisoner's escape, to prevent his suborning testimony, and arranging a factitious tale with those without, may justify many precautions.""
- ""Well, mater," he said, in a voice of factitious calm, "I've got it." He was looking up at the ceiling. "Got what?" "The National Scholarship. Swynnerton says it's a sheer fluke. But I've got it. Great glory for the Bursley School of Art!""
- "Ironically, the most stereotypical myth of Reconstructionism — involving perceived endemic corruption and ruthless exploitation of hapless native whites by freedman and carpetbaggers seeking to gain from black rule — is a factitious story of postwar South Carolina, as told with considerable and lurid exaggeration in two "classic" accounts […]"
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin factītius (“artificial”), alternative form of factīcius, from faciō (“to make, do”). Doublet of fetish.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: factītius
Usage
Inflected Forms
more factitious (comparative)
most factitious (superlative)