factor

Less common meanings

4. 4
   break down (math)verbtransitive

   To break a number or mathematical expression down into the factors that multiply together to give it.

   Students learned to factor large numbers using prime decomposition.

   The algorithm can factor any integer given enough time.

   UsageYou factor a number or expression, often into its parts: factor 12 into 3 and 4.

   Similarfactorize, decompose

5. 5
   production resourcenouncountable

   A resource used in producing goods or services, such as land, labor, or capital.

   When wages rose, the plant replaced workers with machinery, which had become the cheaper factor.

   Economists group the factors of production into land, labor, and capital.

   UsageMostly in the phrase factors of production, usually plural.

   Similarinput, resource

   Note

   The classic list is land, labor and capital, sometimes with entrepreneurship added, and each earns its own kind of income: rent, wages and interest, with profit for entrepreneurship. Firms buy these inputs in factor markets. Unlike the general "influence" meaning, a factor here is something a firm uses in production.

6. 6
   verbintransitive

   To be expressible as a product of other mathematical objects.

   Composite numbers factor into primes.

   This polynomial factors over the rational numbers.

   UsageUsually factor into smaller parts: 15 factors into 3 and 5.

7. 7
   invoice buyernouncountable

   A business that lends money against accounts receivable, or buys and collects those accounts.

   The factor advanced eighty percent of the invoice value upfront.

   Several factors compete to buy the company's receivables.

   Similarlender

   Note

   Here the factor deals in debts owed to a business. It either lends against those accounts receivable or buys them outright at a discount and takes over collecting them, so the seller has cash now instead of waiting for customers to pay. The trade is called factoring, and the seller's side of it has its own verb in to factor a debt. Source

   Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • A factor deals with debts owed to a business and can take over collecting them; this activity is called factoring. gov.uk
   • A factor can advance funds against accounts receivable before collecting payment. trade.gov
   • A business can sell receivables to a factor at a discount to obtain immediate cash. en.wikipedia.org
8. 8
   sell debtsverbtransitive

   To sell a debt, or debts, to an agent who then collects it.

   The company factored its receivables to improve cash flow.

   Exporters often factor debts owed by overseas buyers, leaving a finance company to chase payment abroad.

   Similarsell

   Note

   The seller's side of the deal: a business factors its invoices, receivables or accounts, and the firm that buys them is the debt-buying factor. The verb takes the debts as its object, not the buyer. A company therefore factors its receivables with a factor; it does not factor the factor itself. Source

   Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • A business sells its invoices or accounts receivable to a buyer called a factor. en.wikipedia.org
9. 9
   sales agentnouncountable

   An agent who buys, sells or handles goods on behalf of someone else, usually in return for a commission.

   Each autumn the merchant shipped his furs to a factor in Liverpool, who sold them on commission and sent back the proceeds.

   Wool growers relied on factors to reach distant buyers.

   Similaragent

   Note

   Law narrows the trading agent to a precise role. The factor is entrusted with a principal's goods, sells them, often in the factor's own name, and is paid a commission on each sale. Acting for a principal is what separates a factor from a reseller, who buys the goods and trades on their own account. Source

   Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • A factor receives a principal's goods for sale and earns commission on each sale. mbda.gov
   • Factors commonly sell in their own names. app.leg.wa.gov
   • The distinction is acting for a principal rather than buying and reselling on one's own account. Commission is an indication of agency, not a decisive legal test. unilex.info
   • A reseller buys goods and resells them on its own account. mbda.gov
10. 10
    startup backernouncountable

    Someone, or a business, that finances another person's enterprise, especially a new venture.

    Before the Civil War, a cotton factor often advanced planters the money to run their plantations until the harvest was sold.

    Factors who bankrolled new plantations took heavy risks, since a single bad harvest could leave the debt unpaid.

    Similarfinancier, backer, investor, funder

    Note

    In commercial usage the factor is the money behind someone else's venture: the person or firm that supplies the capital for it, often from the start. Keep it apart from the receivables firm. That kind of factor advances money against invoices already owed, while this one backs the enterprise itself, whether new or already running.

11. 11
    estate managernounScotlandcountable

    A steward or bailiff who manages an estate on behalf of its owner.

    The factor oversaw the estate's accounts and repairs.

    Tenants brought their complaints to the laird's factor.

    Similarsteward, bailiff, manager, overseer

    Note

    A Scottish estate title: the factor handles rents, tenancies and repairs for the laird. In Walter Scott's The Pirate (1822), Claud Halcro mocks a factor "so scrupulous" that he kept a matter quiet even from his master, the Lord Chamberlain. Outside Scottish settings, readers may take the word to mean the trading agent, so the context should make the estate clear.

12. 12
    nounobsolete

    A doer or maker; a person who carries out tasks for another person or organization.

    Note

    The sense nearest the word's Latin source: factor meant "a doer, maker, performer", from factus, "done or made", the participle of faciō, "do, make". In this broad meaning the word is obsolete, so it belongs to older texts rather than to modern prose. Someone who acts for another today is simply an agent, or a factor in the trading-agent meaning, which has survived. Source

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The doer or maker sense corresponds to the meaning of Latin factor. en.wiktionary.org
    • Latin factor derives from factus, meaning done or made. en.wiktionary.org
    • Factus is the participle of faciō, meaning do or make. en.wiktionary.org