Word.ws English Dictionary

factitious

Syllables: fac·ti·tious/fækˈtɪʃəs/

factitious adjective: created by humans; artificial.

Adjective

factitious (comparative more factitious, superlative most factitious)

  1. Created by humans; artificial.
    • [...] 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.1661, Robert Lovell, a Compleat History of Animals and Minerals, page 351
    • 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.1854, Thoreau, Walden, chapter 1
  2. (formal) Counterfeit, fabricated, fake.
    • […] To prevent a prisoner's escape, to prevent his suborning testimony, and arranging a factitious tale with those without, may justify many precautions."1847, George Payne Rainsford James, chapter XXIV, in A Whim, and Its Consequences, page 208
    • "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!"1908, Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives' Tale, book 2 chapter 8
    Synonyms:
    artificial

factitious meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

factitious in Tamil

இயற்கைக்கு மாறான, செயற்கையான, செயற்கை

factitious in Urdu

بناوٹی, مصنوعی, نقلی

factitious in Bengali

প্রাকৃতিক নয়, কৃত্রিম, অপ্রাকৃতিক

factitious in Malayalam

fake, bogus, specious
കൃത്രിമമായ, സ്വാഭാവികമല്ലാത്ത, അയഥാർത്ഥമായ, കപടം, വ്യാജം, കള്ള

Synonyms of factitious

Forms of factitious

comparativemore factitious
superlativemost factitious

Origin of factitious

Borrowed from Latin factītius (“artificial”), alternative form of factīcius, from faciō (“to make, do”). Doublet of fetish.

Words formed from factitious

Words that rhyme with factitious

18 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about factitious

What does factitious mean?
Factitious means created by humans; artificial.
What is factitious in Tamil?
Factitious in Tamil is இயற்கைக்கு மாறான, செயற்கையான, செயற்கை. See Factitious meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is factitious?
Factitious is an adjective.
How do you pronounce factitious?
Factitious is pronounced /fækˈtɪʃəs/.

Words near factitious in the dictionary

  1. factiousnesses
  2. factis
  3. factish
  4. factishes
  5. factitial
  6. factitious
  7. factitious disorder imposed on another
  8. factitiously
  9. factitiousness
  10. factitive
  11. factitively

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: factitious (page history and authors); factitious (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); factitious (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); factitious (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); factitious (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-factitious.ogg.

Cite this entry: “factitious.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/factitious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.