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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Factor \Fac"tor\, noun [L. factor a doer: cf. F. facteur a factor. See {Fact}.]
1. (Law) One who transacts business for another; an agent; a substitute; especially, a mercantile agent who buys and sells goods and transacts business for others in commission; a commission merchant or consignee. He may be a home factor or a foreign factor. He may buy and sell in his own name, and he is intrusted with the possession and control of the goods; and in these respects he differs from a broker. --Story. --Wharton.
My factor sends me word, a merchant's fled That owes me for a hundred tun of wine. --Marlowe.
2. A steward or bailiff of an estate. [Scot.] --Sir W. Scott.
3. (Math.) One of the elements or quantities which, when multiplied together, form a product.
4. One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result; a constituent; a contributory cause. [1913 Webster +PJC]
The materal and dynamical factors of nutrition. --H. Spencer.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Factor \Fac"tor\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Factored} (-t[e^]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. {Factoring}.] (Mach.) To resolve (a quantity) into its factors.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
factor
noun
1: anything that contributes causally to a result; "a number of factors determined the outcome"
2: an abstract part of something; "jealousy was a component of his character"; "two constituents of a musical composition are melody and harmony"; "the grammatical elements of a sentence"; "a key factor in her success"; "humor: an effective ingredient of a speech" [syn: {component}, {constituent}, {element}, {ingredient}]
3: any of the numbers (or symbols) that form a product when multiplied together
4: one of two or more integers that can be exactly divided into another integer; "what are the 4 factors of 6?" [syn: {divisor}]
5: a businessman who buys or sells for another in exchange for a commission [syn: {agent}, {broker}]
6: an independent variable in statistics
7: (genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity; "genes were formerly called factors" [syn: {gene}, {cistron}]
verb: resolve into factors; "a quantum computer can factor the number 15" [syn: {factor in}, {factor out}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
187 Moby Thesaurus words for "factor": Altmann theory, DNA, De Vries theory, Federal, Galtonian theory, MC, Mendelianism, Mendelism, RNA, Verworn theory, Weismann theory, Weismannism, Wiesner theory, adjunct, adjutant, agency, agent, aid, allele, allelomorph, amanuensis, antecedent, antecedents, appraise, appurtenance, article, aspect, assess, assignee, assistant, attorney, backer, baggage agent, bailiff, banker, base, basis, birth, business agent, butler, call, case, catalog, categorize, causation, cause, cause and effect, character, chromatid, chromatin, chromosome, circumstance, claim agent, class, classify, clerk, coadjutor, commercial agent, commission agent, component, consideration, consignee, constituent, contents, count, croupier, curator, custodian, customer agent, datum, deputy, detail, determinant, determinative, determiner, diathesis, dupe, element, emcee, endowment, etiology, eugenics, evaluate, facet, fact, feature, fed, federal agent, financier, fixings, freight agent, functionary, gauge, gene, general agent, genesiology, genetic code, genetics, go-between, ground, grounds, group, guardian, helper, hereditability, heredity, heritability, heritage, housekeeper, identify, implement, inborn capacity, incidental, influence, ingredient, inheritability, inheritance, instance, instrument, instrumentality, insurance agent, integrant, intermediary, item, land agent, landreeve, law agent, lender, librarian, literary agent, loan agent, majordomo, makings, master of ceremonies, matrocliny, matter, means, middleman, minor detail, minutia, minutiae, moneylender, news agent, occasion, official, parliamentary agent, part, part and parcel, particular, passenger agent, patrocliny, pharmacogenetics, piece, point, press agent, principle, proctor, procurator, proxy, puppet, purchasing agent, real estate agent, recessive character, regard, replication, representative, respect, sales agent, secretary, seneschal, sift, sort, sort out, special agent, specialty, station agent, steward, stimulus, theatrical agent, thing, thrash out, ticket agent, tool, travel agent, walking delegate, weigh, winnow
From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:
factor n. See {coefficient of X}.
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
factor A quantity which is multiplied by another quantity. See {coefficient of X}. See also {divisor}. [{Jargon File}]
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