factional

American  

[fak-shuh-nl] / ˈfæk ʃə nl /

adjective

1. of a faction or factions.

2. self-interested; partisan.

   Factional interests had obstructed justice.

---

Other Word Forms

• factionalism noun
• factionalist noun
• interfactional adjective
• unfactional adjective

Etymology

Origin of factional

First recorded in 1640–50; faction ¹ + -al ¹

Explanation

Something that's factional is broken into smaller parts. A government that's divided into opposing groups faces factional bickering that can make it hard to accomplish much of anything. Factional comes from faction and its Latin root, factionem, "political party or class of people." Your huge family might be split into factions that are bitterly divided about where to go for dinner while on vacation, with nightly factional bickering over pizza versus seafood. Any group that includes smaller, highly opinionated groups within it can be described as factional.

Example Sentences

Ordained a priest in 2002, she became the first female Bishop of London in 2018, only four years after the church began allowing women bishops after years of bitter factional wrangling.

From Barron's • Mar. 25, 2026

Rodríguez’s tone shift highlighted the balance that her shaky interim leadership is testing out as she tries to withstand U.S. pressure while keeping the country’s so-called revolutionary government from dissolving into factional infighting.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 6, 2026

But he found himself once again addressing a party mired in factional in-fighting.

From BBC • Nov. 30, 2025

Unfortunately, factional friction is pretty much all that Martin has presided over since.

From Slate • Jun. 21, 2025

For two years now, the Taliban had been making their way toward Kabul, taking cities from the Mujahideen, ending factional war wherever they’d settled.

From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

Related Words

• atypical
• conflicting
• contradictory
• contrary
• different
• disparate
• dissimilar
• diverse
• various