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Circumstance vs Factor - What's the difference?

circumstance | factor |

As nouns the difference between circumstance and factor

is that circumstance is that which attends, or relates to, or in some way affects, a fact or event; an attendant thing or state of things while factor is a doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.

As verbs the difference between circumstance and factor

is that circumstance is to place in a particular situation, especially with regard to money or other resources while factor is to find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly).

circumstance

English

Alternative forms

* circumstaunce

Noun

(en noun)
  • That which attends, or relates to, or in some way affects, a fact or event; an attendant thing or state of things.
  • * Washington Irving
  • The circumstances are well known in the country where they happened.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“The story of this adoption is, of course, the pivot round which all the circumstances of the mysterious tragedy revolved. Mrs. Yule had an only son, namely, William, to whom she was passionately attached ; but, like many a fond mother, she had the desire of mapping out that son's future entirely according to her own ideas. […]”}}
  • An event; a fact; a particular incident.
  • * Addison
  • The sculptor had in his thoughts the conqoeror weeping for new worlds, or the like circumstances in history.
  • * 1834 , David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of , Nebraska 1987, p. 20:
  • Then another circumstance happened, which made a lasting impression on my memory, though I was but a small child.
  • Circumlocution; detail.
  • * Shakespeare
  • So without more circumstance at all / I hold it fit that we shake hands and part.
  • Condition in regard to worldly estate; state of property; situation; surroundings.
  • * Addison
  • When men are easy in their circumstances , they are naturally enemies to innovations.

    Derived terms

    {{der3, attendant circumstance , extenuating circumstances , under no circumstance , under the circumstances}}

    Verb

    (circumstanc)
  • To place in a particular situation, especially with regard to money or other resources.
  • * 1858 , , Chapter 8:
  • Tidings had in some shape reached is ears that his father was not comfortably circumstanced as regarded money.
  • *
  • factor

    English

    (wikipedia factor)

    Alternative forms

    * factour (archaic)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.
  • An agent or representative.
  • * (Christopher Marlowe)
  • My factor sends me word, a merchant's fled / That owes me for a hundred tun of wine.
  • *, II.21:
  • *:And let such as will number the Kings of Castile and Portugall amongst the warlike and magnanimous conquerors, seeke for some other adherent then my selfe, forsomuch as twelve hundred leagues from their idle residence they have made themselves masters of both Indias, onely by the conduct and direction of their factors , of whom it would be knowne whether they durst but goe and enjoy them in person.
  • * 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.
  • (legal)
  • # A commission agent.
  • # A person or business organization that provides money for another's new business venture; one who finances another's business.
  • # A business organization that lends money on accounts receivable or buys and collects accounts receivable.
  • One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result.
  • * (Herbert Spencer)
  • the material and dynamical factors of nutrition
  • (mathematics) Any of various objects multiplied together to form some whole.
  • * 1956 , , (The City and the Stars) , p.38:
  • The first thousand primesthe complete sequence of all those numbers that possessed no factors except themselves and unity.
  • (root cause analysis) Influence; a phenomenon that affects the nature, the magnitude, and/or the timing of a consequence.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Charles T. Ambrose
  • , title= Alzheimer’s Disease , volume=101, issue=3, page=200, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems— […]. Such a slow-release device containing angiogenic factors could be placed on the pia mater covering the cerebral cortex and tested in persons with senile dementia in long term studies.}}
  • (economics) A resource used in the production of goods or services, a factor of production.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= T time , passage=The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them
  • (Scotland) A steward or bailiff of an estate.
  • (Sir Walter Scott)

    Derived terms

    * corn-factor * factorial * factor market * factor of production * factorize * factorization * form factor * pull factor * push factor

    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

    (en verb)
  • To find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly).
  • (of a number or other mathematical object) To be a product of other objects.
  • Derived terms

    * factor in * factor out * refactor

    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