factors

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of factor.

   Economic and political factors both shaped the outcome of the election.

   The number twelve has six factors, including one and itself.

   Note

   A regular -s plural that serves two quite different worlds. In most prose, factors are the elements or influences that together produce a result, as in economic and political factors. In commerce, factors are people and firms: agents, consignees and distributors, backers who finance another's business, or companies that lend on or buy and collect accounts receivable. The oldest use, a doer acting for someone else, is now obsolete.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of factor.

   The budget model factors in inflation when projecting next year's costs.

   The software factors large integers to test their primality.

   Note

   The present-tense form a singular subject takes: it factors, she factors. In mathematics the verb is usually transitive, with someone factoring a number or an expression. It can also be intransitive, where the thing itself is the product: twelve factors as three times four. In finance, a business that factors its debts sells them to the agent named by the commercial noun, who then collects them.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2