NOUN (4)

1. a piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred;
- Example: "first you must collect all the facts of the case"

2. a statement or assertion of verified information about something that is the case or has happened;
- Example: "he supported his argument with an impressive array of facts"

3. an event known to have happened or something known to have existed;
- Example: "your fears have no basis in fact"
- Example: "how much of the story is fact and how much fiction is hard to tell"

4. a concept whose truth can be proved;
- Example: "scientific hypotheses are not facts"

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Fact \Fact\ (f[a^]kt), n. [L. factum, fr. facere to make or do.
   Cf. Feat, Affair, Benefit, Defect, Fashion, and
   -fy.]
   1. A doing, making, or preparing. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            A project for the fact and vending
            Of a new kind of fucus, paint for ladies. --B.
                                                  Jonson.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that
      comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance.
      [1913 Webster]

            What might instigate him to this devilish fact, I am
            not able to conjecture.               --Evelyn.
      [1913 Webster]

            He who most excels in fact of arms.   --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Reality; actuality; truth; as, he, in fact, excelled all
      the rest; the fact is, he was beaten.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. The assertion or statement of a thing done or existing;
      sometimes, even when false, improperly put, by a transfer
      of meaning, for the thing done, or supposed to be done; a
      thing supposed or asserted to be done; as, history abounds
      with false facts.
      [1913 Webster]

            I do not grant the fact.              --De Foe.
      [1913 Webster]

            This reasoning is founded upon a fact which is not
            true.                                 --Roger Long.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: The term fact has in jurisprudence peculiar uses in
         contrast with law; as, attorney at law, and attorney in
         fact; issue in law, and issue in fact. There is also a
         grand distinction between law and fact with reference
         to the province of the judge and that of the jury, the
         latter generally determining the fact, the former the
         law. --Burrill --Bouvier.
         [1913 Webster]

   Accessary before the fact, or Accessary after the fact.
      See under Accessary.

   Matter of fact, an actual occurrence; a verity; used
      adjectively: of or pertaining to facts; prosaic;
      unimaginative; as, a matter-of-fact narration.

   Syn: Act; deed; performance; event; incident; occurrence;
        circumstance.
        [1913 Webster]

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (17 December 2009):

fact

    The kind of clause
   used in logic programming which has no subgoals and so is
   always true (always succeeds).  E.g.

   	wet(water).
   	male(denis).

   This is in contrast to a rule which only succeeds if all its
   subgoals do.  Rules usually contain logic variables, facts
   rarely do, except for oddities like "equal(X,X).".

   (1996-10-20)


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (17 December 2009):

Fully Automated Compiling Technique
FACT
Honeywell-800 Business Compiler

    (FACT, "Honeywell-800 Business Compiler") A
   pre-COBOL English-like business data processing language for
   the Honeywell 800, developed ca. 1959.

   [Sammet 1969, p. 327].

   (1994-12-01)


Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

140 Moby Thesaurus words for "fact":
   absolute fact, accepted fact, accomplishment, act, actual fact,
   actuality, actually, admitted fact, adventure, article, aspect,
   authenticity, axiom, bald fact, bare fact, basis for belief,
   body of evidence, brutal fact, case, certainty, chain of evidence,
   circumstance, clue, cold fact, conceded fact, count, data, datum,
   deed, demonstrable fact, detail, details, documentation, element,
   empirical fact, episode, established fact, eternal verities, event,
   evidence, exhibit, experience, facet, fact of experience, factor,
   factors, facts, factually, fait accompli, genuineness, given fact,
   good sooth, grounds, grounds for belief, hap, happening,
   happenstance, hard fact, historical truth, historicity, in fact,
   in reality, in truth, incident, incidental, indeed, indication,
   indisputable fact, inescapable fact, information, instance, item,
   item of evidence, items, low-down, manifestation, mark,
   material grounds, matter, matter of fact, minor detail, minutia,
   minutiae, muniments, mute witness, naked fact, not guesswork,
   not opinion, observable, occasion, occurrence, particular,
   particulars, phenomenon, piece of evidence, plain, point, points,
   positive fact, postulate, premises, proof, provable fact, reality,
   really, reason to believe, regard, relevant fact, respect,
   salient fact, self-evident fact, sign, significant fact,
   simple fact, sober fact, sooth, stubborn fact, symptom, the case,
   the nitty-gritty, the score, the true, thing, to be sure, token,
   trueness, truly, truth, truthfully, truthfulness, turn of events,
   ultimate truth, undeniable fact, unerroneousness, unfallaciousness,
   unfalseness, veracity, verity, very truth, well-known fact