Effect vs Factor - What's the difference?
effect | factor |
The result or outcome of a cause. See below.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1
, passage=The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect , and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed.}}
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=1 * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Impression left on the mind; sensation produced.
* J. C. Shairp
* Washington Irving
(filmology) An illusion produced by technical means (as in "special effect")
(sound engineering) An alteration in sound after it has been produced by an instrument.
(sound engineering) A device for producing an alteration in sound produced by an instrument.
Execution; performance; realization; operation.
* Shakespeare
# (uncountable) The state of being binding and enforceable, as in a rule, policy, or law.
A scientific phenomenon, usually named after its discoverer.
(usually plural) Belongings, usually as personal effects.
Consequence intended; purpose; meaning; general intent; with to .
* Bible, Chron. xxxiv. 22
(obsolete) Reality; actual meaning; fact, as distinguished from mere appearance.
* Denham
(obsolete) Manifestation; expression; sign.
* Shakespeare
To make or bring about; to implement.
(obsolete) A doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.
An agent or representative.
* (Christopher Marlowe)
*, 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) :
(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)
(mathematics) Any of various objects multiplied together to form some whole.
* 1956 , , (The City and the Stars) , p.38:
(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=
, title= (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= (Scotland) A steward or bailiff of an estate.
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.
In obsolete terms the difference between effect and factor
is that effect is manifestation; expression; sign while factor is a doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.As nouns the difference between effect and factor
is that effect is the result or outcome of a cause. See usage notes below.factor is a doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.As verbs the difference between effect and factor
is that effect is to make or bring about; to implement while factor is to find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly).effect
English
(wikipedia effect)Noun
citation, passage=The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. […] The bed was the most extravagant piece. Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.}}
Obama goes troll-hunting, passage=The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.}}
- patchwork introduced for oratorical effect
- The effect was heightened by the wild and lonely nature of the place.
- That no compunctious visitings of nature / Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between / The effect and it.
- They spake to her to that effect .
- no other in effect than what it seems
- All the large effects / That troop with majesty.
Usage notes
The words “affect” and “effect'” can both be used as nouns or verbs, but when used as a noun the word affect is limited to uses in the psychology field, and the above definitions for ' effect are much more common. See also the usage notes as a verb below. Adjectives often applied to "effect": * biological, chemical, cultural, economic, legal, mental, moral, nutritional, personal, physical, physiological, political and social * actual, bad, beneficial, catastrophic, deleterious, disastrous, devastating, fatal, good, harmful, important, intended, likely, natural, negative, positive, potential, primary, real, secondary, significant, special, strong, undesirable and weakDerived terms
(noun phrases using effect) * after-effect, aftereffect * butterfly effect * domino effect * Doppler effect * greenhouse effect * in effect * knock-on effect * Nader effect * personal effects * ripple effect * side effect * snowball effect * special effect * sound effect * spoiler effectVerb
(en verb)- The best way to effect change is to work with existing stakeholders.
Usage notes
Effect' is often confused with “' affect ”. The latter is used to convey the influence over existing ideas, emotions and entities; the former indicates the manifestation of new or original ideas or entities: * “...new governing coalitions have effected major changes” indicates that major changes were made as a result of new governing coalitions. * “...new governing coalitions have affected major changes” indicates that before new governing coalitions, major changes were in place, and that the new governing coalitions had some influence over these existing changes.Statistics
*factor
English
(wikipedia factor)Alternative forms
* factour (archaic)Noun
(en noun)- My factor sends me word, a merchant's fled / That owes me for a hundred tun of wine.
- 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.
- the material and dynamical factors of nutrition
- The first thousand primesthe complete sequence of all those numbers that possessed no factors except themselves and unity.
Charles T. Ambrose
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.}}
T time, passage=The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them
- (Sir Walter Scott)