# factor

Pronunciation: US say "FAK-tur" /ˈfæk.tɚ/; UK say "FAK-tuh" /ˈfæk.tə/

## Noun

1. One of the things, such as a condition, fact or influence, that helps bring about a result or affects its form, size or timing.
   - Simple: One of the things that helps cause a result or changes how something turns out.
   - _Stress is a major factor in many health problems._
   - _Several factors influenced their decision to move abroad._
2. The multiple by which an amount increases or decreases, as when one quantity becomes ten times another.
   - Simple: A number that shows how many times bigger or smaller one amount has become.
   - _Over the decade, the cost of a starter home rose by a factor of four._
   - _Cutting the dose by a factor of ten made the side effects disappear._
3. Any of the numbers or objects multiplied together to form a product.
   - Simple: One of the numbers you multiply together to get another number.
   - _Two and three are factors of six._
   - _Every whole number has one as a factor._
5. A resource used in producing goods or services, such as land, labor, or capital.
   - Simple: Something used to make goods or services, like workers, tools, or land.
   - _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._
7. A business that lends money against accounts receivable, or buys and collects those accounts.
   - Simple: A company that lends money against unpaid bills, or buys and collects them.
   - _The factor advanced eighty percent of the invoice value upfront._
   - _Several factors compete to buy the company's receivables._
9. An agent who buys, sells or handles goods on behalf of someone else, usually in return for a commission.
   - Simple: A person or company that buys or sells goods for someone else, usually for a share of the price.
   - _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._
10. Someone, or a business, that finances another person's enterprise, especially a new venture.
   - Simple: A person or company that provides money for someone else's business, especially a new one.
   - _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._
11. A steward or bailiff who manages an estate on behalf of its owner. *(Scotland)*
   - Simple: A person who manages a large estate for its owner.
   - _The factor oversaw the estate's accounts and repairs._
   - _Tenants brought their complaints to the laird's factor._

## Verb

4. To break a number or mathematical expression down into the factors that multiply together to give it.
   - Simple: In math, to write a number or expression as smaller parts multiplied together.
   - _Students learned to factor large numbers using prime decomposition._
   - _The algorithm can factor any integer given enough time._
6. To be expressible as a product of other mathematical objects.
   - Simple: To be made by multiplying other numbers together.
   - _Composite numbers factor into primes._
   - _This polynomial factors over the rational numbers._
8. To sell a debt, or debts, to an agent who then collects it.
   - Simple: To sell unpaid debts to another company so it can collect them.
   - _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._

## Noun

12. A doer or maker; a person who carries out tasks for another person or organization. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A person who does or makes things for another person or group.

## Origin

Latin factor ("a doer, maker, performer") came into English by way of Middle French facteur; the Latin noun is built on factus ("done or made"), which is the perfect passive participle of faciō ("do, make").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/factor (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).