factoid
/ˈfæk.tɔɪd/
"factoid" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“factoid” is uncommon English (frequency #79,503 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #79,503
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An inaccurate statement or statistic believed to be true because of broad repetition, especially if cited in the media.
Corpus desk
Index EN-factoid · factoid · English
factoid · rank #79,503 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #79,503
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH explication
Nearest frequency peer: explication (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “factoid”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- ethnocentric
ethnocentric
20,504 corpus weight
- euphorbia
euphorbia
20,502 corpus weight
- evanescent
evanescent
20,501 corpus weight
- explication
explication
20,499 corpus weight
- factoid
factoid
20,498 corpus weight
- fallibility
fallibility
20,497 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “factoid” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | factoid |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfæk.tɔɪd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #79,503 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “factoid” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
factoid is uncommon English at frequency #79,503 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈfæk.tɔɪd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
factoid has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From fact + -oid (“similar, but not the same”); coined by American writer Norman Mailer in 1973 in Marilyn: A Biography, defined as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product… The correct English form is factoid, spelled F-A-C-T-O-I-D.
Definition
- 1An inaccurate statement or statistic believed to be true because of broad repetition, especially if cited in the media.
- 2An interesting item of trivia; a minor fact.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how factoid appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Such hedging is necessitated by the lack of in-depth knowledge of the contents, which also gives free rein to the scripting of unsubstantiated factoids concerning the book.
Wikipedia-derived factoids can be so important that there is a well-known feedback loop, called citogenesis, in which the mainstream news finds some claim made in a Wikipedia article, and publishes it (without citing Wikipedia). Then Wikipedia itself makes use of the news article. By means of this loop, an ultimately “sourceless” factoid gains a spurious…
Etymology
From fact + -oid (“similar, but not the same”); coined by American writer Norman Mailer in 1973 in Marilyn: A Biography, defined as "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".
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "factoid", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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- Usage frequency rank #79,503 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
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PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.