Factoid

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mount Isa, Australia, is often incorrectly referred to as the largest city in the world by area

Toronto, Canada, was never designated by UNESCO as the world's most multicultural city

Factoid can refer to a spurious (unverified, incorrect, or invented) "fact" intended to create or prolong public exposure or to manipulate public opinion. It appears in the Oxford English Dictionary ^[1] as "something which becomes accepted as fact, although it may not be true", namely a speculation or an assumption, The term was coined by Norman Mailer in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe.^[2] Mailer described a factoid as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper", and created the word by combining the word "fact" and the ending "-oid" to mean "like a fact".^[3]

There are strong connections between factoids and urban legends.

1 Examples
2 Other meaning
3 Footnotes
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Examples

It is commonly believed in the Australian city of Mount Isa that their city, in terms of its area, is the world's largest or second largest city. In reality Mount Isa is not even the largest city in Australia and there are several larger cities around the world. Their own local council web site incorrectly suggests it is the second largest city on earth. ^[4]
The media in Canada have often reported that the city of Toronto was named by UNESCO as the most multicultural city in the world. Although there have been some reports suggesting that Toronto may be one of the world's most diverse cities (see Demographics of Toronto), the United Nations agency has never designated any city as being the most multicultural or diverse. Nonetheless, the belief in this status persisted for years, even finding its way onto UNESCO's own web site,^[5] into the pages of the New York Times,^[6] and into international media reports in respect of Toronto's two Olympic bids.
The Great Wall of China is often touted as being the only man made object visible from space. ^[7]

[edit] Other meaning

Factoid is now sometimes also used to mean a small piece of true but valueless or insignificant information, in contrast to the original definition. This has been popularized by the CNN Headline News TV channel which during the 1980s and 1990s used to frequently include such a fact under the heading "factoid" during newscasts - synonymous with the neologism factlet. In the United Kingdom, BBC Radio 2 presenter Steve Wright uses factoids extensively on his show. ^[8]

As a result of confusion over the meaning of factoid, some English-language style and usage guides recommend against its use. ^[9]