Factor

Pronunciation

Alternative forms

• factour archaic

Origin

From Middle French facteur, from Latin factor ("a doer, maker, performer"), from factus ("done or made"), perfect passive participle of faciō ("do, make").

Full definition of factor

Noun

1. (obsolete) A doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.
   The factor of the trading post bought the furs.
2. (now rare) An agent or representative.
• Christopher MarloweMy factor sends me word, a merchant's fled
  That owes me for a hundred tun of wine.
• 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.21:And let such as will number the Kings of Castile and Portugall amongst the warlike and magnanimous conquerors, seeke for some other adherent then my selfe, forsomuch as twelve hundred leagues from their idle residence they have made themselves masters of both Indias, onely by the conduct and direction of their factors, of whom it would be knowne whether they durst but goe and enjoy them in person.
• 1644, John Milton, Aeropagitica:What does he therefore, but resolvs to give over toyling, and to find himself out som factor, to whose care and credit he may commit the whole managing of his religious affairs; som Divine of note and estimation that must be.
3. One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result.
   The greatest factor in the decision was the need for public transportation.
   The economy was a factor in this year's budget figures.
• Herbert Spencerthe material and dynamical factors of nutrition
4. (mathematics) Any of various objects multiplied together to form some whole.
• 1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, p.38:The first thousand primes...marched in order before him...the complete sequence of all those numbers that possessed no factors except themselves and unity.
5. 3 is a factor of 12, as are 2, 4 and 6.
   The factors of the Klein four-group are both cyclic of order 2.
6. (root cause analysis) Influence; a phenomenon that affects the nature, the magnitude, and/or the timing of a consequence.
• 2013, Charles T. Ambrose, Alzheimer’s Disease, Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems— …. Such a slow-release device containing angiogenic factors could be placed on the pia mater covering the cerebral cortex and tested in persons with senile dementia in long term studies.
7. The launch temperature was a factor of the Challenger disaster.
8. (economics) A resource used in the production of goods or services, a factor of production.
• 2013-06-22, T time, The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them...is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies....current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate...“stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.
9. (Scotland) A steward or bailiff of an estate.

Derived terms

Related terms

Verb

1. (transitive) To find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly).
2. (of a number or other mathematical object, intransitive) To be a product of other objects.

Derived terms

• factor in
• factor out
• refactor