faction

noun

1. (countable)A group of people, especially within a political organization, which expresses a shared belief or opinion different from people who are not part of the group.

   “Real factions may be divided into those from interest, from principle, and from affection”

   “Prejudice has bred a counterprejudice so that now neither faction can nor will see without distortion.”

   “The Chinese Communist army in Kiangsi province has split into two factions struggling against each other following the purge of the "gang of four" led by Chiang Ching, according to an intelligence report from the Chinese mainland.”

2. (uncountable)Strife; discord.

   “Publick [sic] affairs soon fell into the utmost confusion, and in this state of faction and perplexity, the island continued, until its re-capture by the French in 1779.”

   “He asks the audience if they believe that they will be more loved by the gods if the city is in a state of faction than if they govern the city with good order and concord.”

3. (uncountable)A form of literature, film etc., that treats real people or events as if they were fiction; a mix of fact and fiction.

   “Near-synonym: fictionalization”

   “Blind genius of faction / Obituary of Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer [title]”

   “Contemporary reviewers offered different labels in attempts to describe the genre of Schindler's List. Lorna Sage, D.J. Enright and Robert Taubman called it a ‘documentary novel’; Paul Bailey and Gay Firth ‘faction’; […]”

   “[Norman Mailer] was, though, absolutely the daddy of faction, his novels or journalism reporting every conflict from 1939 to Iraq and biographising Americans including John F Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali and Neil Armstrong.”

4. (uncountable)The facts found in fiction.