▪ the truth about events as opposed to interpretation:"there was a question of fact as to whether they had received the letter"
Word Originlate 15th century: from Latin factum, neuter past participle of facere ‘do’. The original sense was ‘an act’, later ‘a crime’, surviving in the phrase before (or after) the fact. The earliest of the current senses (‘truth, reality’) dates from the late 16th century.