different between fact vs factor

English

Etymology

From Latin factum (“a deed, act, exploit; in Medieval Latin also state, condition, circumstance”), neuter of factus (“done or made”), perfect passive participle of faci? (“do, make”). Doublet of feat.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fækt/
• Rhymes: -ækt

Noun

fact (countable and uncountable, plural facts)

1. Something actual as opposed to invented.
2. Something which is real.

   Gravity is a fact, not a theory.

3. Something concrete used as a basis for further interpretation.

4. An objective consensus on a fundamental reality that has been agreed upon by a substantial number of experts.

5. Information about a particular subject, especially actual conditions and/or circumstances.

6. (databases) An individual value or measurement at the lowest level of granularity in a data warehouse.
7. (archaic) Action; the realm of action.
8. (law, obsolete except in set phrases) A wrongful or criminal deed.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ix:

     She was empassiond at that piteous act, / With zelous enuy of Greekes cruell fact, / Against that nation [...].

9. (obsolete) A feat or meritorious deed.

Antonyms

• (Something actual): fiction

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• value
• opinion
• belief

References

• fact at OneLook Dictionary Search
• fact in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fact in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• "Conway: 'Alternative Facts'" Merriam-Webster's Trend Watch Merriam-Webster. 2017.

Interjection

fact

1. Used before making a statement to introduce it as a trustworthy one.

Anagrams

• acft

English

Alternative forms

• factour (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle French facteur, from Latin factor (“a doer, maker, performer”), from factus (“done or made”), perfect passive participle of faci? (“do, make”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?fækt?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?fækt?/
• Hyphenation: fact?or
• Rhymes: -ækt?(?)

Noun

factor (plural factors)

1. (obsolete) A doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.

2. (now rare) An agent or representative.

   My factor sends me word, a merchant's fled / That owes me for a hundred tun of wine.

   • 1644, John Milton, Aeropagitica:

     What does he therefore, but resolvs to give over toyling, and to find himself out som factor, to whose care and credit he may commit the whole managing of his religious affairs; som Divine of note and estimation that must be.

   • 1985 Haynes Owners Workshop Manual, BMW

     Motor factors — Good factors will stock all of the more important components which wear out relatively quickly.

3. (law)
   1. A commission agent.
   2. A person or business organization that provides money for another's new business venture; one who finances another's business.
   3. A business organization that lends money on accounts receivable or buys and collects accounts receivable.
5. One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result.
   • 1863, Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Biology

     the material and dynamical factors of nutrition

6. (mathematics) Any of various objects multiplied together to form some whole.
   • 1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, p.38:

     The first thousand primes […] marched in order before him […] the complete sequence of all those numbers that possessed no factors except themselves and unity.

7. (causal analysis) Influence; a phenomenon that affects the nature, the magnitude, and/or the timing of a consequence.
8. (economics) A resource used in the production of goods or services, a factor of production.
9. (Scotland) A steward or bailiff of an estate.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• addition, summation: (augend) + (addend) = (summand) + (summand) = (sum, total)
• subtraction: (minuend) ? (subtrahend) = (difference)
• multiplication: (multiplier) × (multiplicand) = (factor) × (factor) = (product)
• division: (dividend) ÷ (divisor) = (quotient), remainder left over if divisor does not divide dividend

Verb

factor (third-person singular simple present factors, present participle factoring, simple past and past participle factored)

1. (transitive) To find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly).
2. (of a number or other mathematical object, intransitive) To be a product of other objects.
3. (commercial, transitive) To sell a debt or debts to an agent (the factor) to collect.

Derived terms

• factor in
• factor out
• refactor

Translations

See also

• addition, summation: (augend) + (addend) = (summand) × (summand) = (sum, total)
• subtraction: (minuend) ? (subtrahend) = (difference)
• multiplication: (multiplier) × (multiplicand) = (factor) × (factor) = (product)
• division: (dividend) ÷ (divisor) = (quotient), remainder left over if divisor does not divide dividend

Further reading

• factor in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• factor in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin factor.

Noun

factor m (plural factors)

1. factor (integral part)

Further reading

• “factor” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch factoor, from Middle French facteur, from Latin factor (“a doer, maker, performer”), from factus (“done or made”), perfect passive participle of faci? (“do, make”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?k.t?r/
• Hyphenation: fac?tor

Noun

factor m (plural factoren, diminutive factortje n)

1. a factor, element
2. (mathematics) factor
3. (obsolete) business representative

Descendants

• Afrikaans: faktor
• ? West Frisian: faktor

Latin

Etymology

From faci? (“to do, make”) +? -tor (masculine agent noun suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?fak.tor/, [?fäkt??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?fak.tor/, [?f?kt??r]

Noun

factor m (genitive fact?ris); third declension

1. One who or which does or makes something; doer, maker, performer, perpetrator, agent, player.
2. (sports) player, batsman

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Related terms

• factus
• factura

Descendants

References

• factor in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• factor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• factor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• factor in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• factor in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Portuguese

Noun

factor m (plural factores)

1. Superseded spelling of fator. (superseded in Brazil by the 1943 spelling reform and by the Orthographic Agreement of 1990 elsewhere. Still used in countries where the agreement hasn’t come into effect and as an alternative spelling in Portugal.)

Romanian

Etymology

From French facteur

Noun

factor m (plural factori)

1. factor
2. postal worker, postman, mailman

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin factor. Compare the inherited doublet hechor (cf. malhechor).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fa??to?/, [fa???t?o?]
• Rhymes: -o?

Noun

factor m (plural factores)

1. factor

Derived terms

• factor productivo

Related terms

• hacer