factitious
fac·ti·tious/fækˈtɪʃəs/adjective
factitious is an adjective meaning “Created by humans; artificial” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-A-C-T-I-T-I-O-U-S and has 3 syllables (fac·ti·tious), and it appears about once in every 17 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does factitious mean?
adjective
- 1
Created by humans; artificial.
- 2
Counterfeit, fabricated, fake.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce factitious?
- /fækˈtɪʃəs/
Factitious has 3 syllables, split fac·ti·tious in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-factitious.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of factitious
- more factitious comparative
- most factitious superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is factitious?
Factitious appears about once in every 17 million words in written English, the 125,655th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Factitious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does factitious come from?
Borrowed from Latin factītius (“artificial”), alternative form of factīcius, from faciō (“to make, do”). Doublet of fetish.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).