Factors

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈfæktɚz/

Definitions

1. Elements that serve as determinants in an outcome or situation
2. Components regarded as influences in an event or decision-making process
3. Elements that contribute to producing an effect or bringing about a condition

Etymology: The word "factors" is simply the plural of "factor," and the singular has a strikingly literal origin: Latin "factor" meant "a doer, maker, performer," someone who actually carried out a task. It came from "factus," meaning "done or made," the past participle of "faciō," "do, make," the same root that gives English "fact," "factory," and "manufacture." Over centuries the agent sense drifted into the abstract. Middle English took the word as "factour," a term for a commercial agent or steward who acted on someone else's behalf, and that business sense of a person who transacts affairs stayed close to its maker meaning. The leap to "something that contributes to an outcome" came later, when a doer became a thing that made something happen. The plural now describes the many elements that together produce a result, such as the factors behind a decision.

Synonyms: elements, components, variables