factor. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

factor

SYLLABICATION:	fac·tor
PRONUNCIATION:	fktr
NOUN:	1. One that actively contributes to an accomplishment, result, or process: “Surprise is the greatest factor in war” (Tom Clancy). See synonyms at element. 2a. One who acts for someone else; an agent. b. A person or firm that accepts accounts receivable as security for short-term loans. 3. Mathematics One of two or more quantities that divides a given quantity without a remainder. For example, 2 and 3 are factors of 6; a and b are factors of ab. 4. A quantity by which a stated quantity is multiplied or divided, so as to indicate an increase or decrease in a measurement: The rate increased by a factor of ten. 5. A gene. No longer in technical usage. 6. Physiology A substance that functions in a specific biochemical reaction or bodily process, such as blood coagulation.
TRANSITIVE VERB:	Inflected forms: fac·tored, fac·tor·ing, fac·tors To determine or indicate explicitly the factors of.
PHRASAL VERB:	factor in To figure in: We factored sick days and vacations in when we prepared the work schedule.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English factour, perpetrator, agent, from Old French facteur, from Latin factor, maker, from facere, to make. See dh- in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS:	factor·a·ble —ADJECTIVE factor·ship —NOUN


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.