factor
Pluralfactors
Pluralfactors
Formsfactors, factoring, factored
- 1One of the things that helps cause a result or changes how something turns out.
Like one ingredient that helps make a finished dish.
Cost was a big factor in choosing the car.
Many factors led to the team's win.
UsageSay a factor in something: a big factor in choosing the car.
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- 2A number that shows how many times bigger or smaller one amount has become.
The new computer chip is faster by a factor of three.
The number of bikes in the city grew by a factor of two in ten years.
UsageSay by a factor of + a number: faster by a factor of three means three times as fast.
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- 3One of the numbers you multiply together to get another number.
Like the smaller numbers that build a bigger one when you multiply them.
Three is a factor of twelve.
We listed all the factors of the number on the board.
UsageSay a factor of a number: 3 is a factor of 12.
Similardivisor
Oppositemultiple
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Less common meanings
- 4In math, to write a number or expression as smaller parts multiplied together.
Like breaking a big block into the smaller equal pieces it is made of.
The teacher asked us to factor twelve.
Can you factor this number for me?
UsageYou factor a number into smaller parts: factor 12 into 3 and 4.
- 5Something used to make goods or services, like workers, tools, or land.
Like the ingredients you need to bake a cake.
Labor is one factor of production that every business needs.
A bakery's factors of production include its building, its ovens, and its bakers.
UsageMostly in the phrase factors of production.
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- 6To be made by multiplying other numbers together.
Like a number that can split into smaller numbers multiplied together.
Six and ten both factor into smaller numbers.
Fifteen factors into three times five.
UsageSay a number factors into smaller numbers: 15 factors into 3 and 5.
- 7A company that lends money against unpaid bills, or buys and collects them.
Like a company that buys your unpaid bills now so you don't have to wait.
The factor paid the firm cash for its unpaid invoices.
Small businesses sometimes use a factor to get money faster.
Similarlender
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- 8To sell unpaid debts to another company so it can collect them.
The firm decided to factor its overdue invoices.
Small firms often factor their unpaid bills to get cash fast.
Similarsell
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- 9A person or company that buys or sells goods for someone else, usually for a share of the price.
Like a salesperson who sells other people's goods and keeps a small cut.
In colonial times, a planter sent his tobacco to a factor in London to sell.
Merchants hired factors to sell their goods abroad.
Similaragent
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- 10A person or company that provides money for someone else's business, especially a new one.
Like a person who lends you the money to open your own store.
Each spring, the planter's factor lent him money to buy seed.
In the 1800s, many cotton farmers could not plant a crop without money from a factor.
Similarfinancier, backer, investor, funder
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- 11
- 12A person who does or makes things for another person or group.
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Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Latin factor, meaning "a doer or maker," from facere "to do or make," which came into English through French.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- English factor derives from Latin factor, meaning a doer or maker. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin factor derives from the verb facere, meaning to do or make. en.wiktionary.org
- The word entered English through French. en.wiktionary.org