Fact /(făkt)/

Fact

n.
  1. A doing, making, or preparing. [Obs.]
    A project for the fact and vending Of a new kind of fucus, paint for ladies.
  2. An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance.
    What might instigate him to this devilish fact, I am not able to conjecture.
    He who most excels in fact of arms.
  3. Reality; actuality; truth; as, he, in fact, excelled all the rest; the fact is, he was beaten.
  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.
    I do not grant the fact.
    This reasoning is founded upon a fact which is not true.
    — Roger Long.

Phrases & Compounds

Accessary before 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.