Factor vs Need - What's the difference?
factor | need |
(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.
A requirement for something.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
* (Jeremy Taylor) (1613–1677)
*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Something required.
Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
To be necessary (to someone).
* , II.ix:
(label) To have an absolute requirement for.
* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Tom Fordyce, work=BBC Sport
, title= (label) To want strongly; to feel that one must have something.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
, title= (label) To be obliged or required (to do something).
(label) To be required; to be necessary.
* (John Locke) (1632-1705)
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
, volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title=
As nouns the difference between factor and need
is that factor is (obsolete) a doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization while need is a requirement for something.As verbs the difference between factor and need
is that factor is to find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly) while need is to be necessary (to someone).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)
Derived terms
* corn-factor * factorial * factor market * factor of production * factorize * factorization * form factor * pull factor * push factorSee 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 dividendVerb
(en verb)Derived terms
* factor in * factor out * refactorSee 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 dividendExternal links
* * English ergative verbs ----need
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) need, nede, partly from (etyl) . More at (l). Old norse nauð(r) ("powerty,distress, lack of")Noun
(en noun)- I have no need to beg.
- Be governed by your needs , not by your fancy.
It's a gas, passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.
- Famine is in thy cheeks; / Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes.
Usage notes
* Adjectives often used with "need": urgent, dire, desperate, strong, unmet, bad, basic, critical, essential, big, terrible, modest, elementary, daily, everyday, special, educational, environmental, human, personal, financial, emotional, medical, nutritional, spiritual, public, developmental, organizational, legal, fundamental, audio-visual, psychological, corporate, societal, psychosocial, functional, additional, caloric, private, monetary, physiological, mental.Derived terms
(Derived terms) * if need be * in need, in need of; a friend in need is a friend indeed * need-based * needful, needfully, needfulness * needless, needlessly, needlessness * needy, needily, needinessEtymology 2
From (etyl) neden, from (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- More ample spirit, then hitherto was wount, / Here needes me.
Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland, passage=Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off.}}
Geothermal Energy, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}
- When we have done it, we have done all that is in our power, and all that needs .
Our banks are out of control, passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around.}}
Usage notes
* The verb is construed in a few different ways: ** With a direct object, as in “I need your help.” ** With a to -infinitive, as in “I need to go.” Here, the subject of serves implicitly as the subject of the infinitive. ** With a clause of the form “for [object] to [verb phrase]”, or simply “[object] to [verb phrase]” as in “I need for this to happen” or “I need this to happen.” In both variants, the object serves as the subject of the infinitive. ** As a modal verb, with a bare infinitive; in negative polarity contexts, such as questions (“Need I say more?”), with negative expressions such as not (“It need not happen today”; “No one need ever know”), and with similar constructions (“There need only be a few”; “it need be signed only by the president”; “I need hardly explain the error”). . ** With a gerund-participle, as in “The car needs washing”, or (in certain dialects) with a past participle, as in “The car needs washed”[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003106.html] (both meaning roughly “The car needs to be washed”). ** With a direct object and a predicative complement, as in “We need everyone here on time” (meaning roughly “We need everyone to be here on time”) or “I need it gone” (meaning roughly “I need it to be gone”). ** In certain dialects, and colloquially in certain others, with an unmarked reflexive pronoun, as in “I need me a car.” * A sentence such as “I need you to sit down” or “you need to sit down” is more polite than the bare command “sit down”, but less polite than “please sit down”. It is considered somewhat condescending and infantilizing, hence dubbed by some “the kindergarten imperative”, but is quite common in American usage.“You Need To Read This: How need to vanquished have to, must, and should.” by Ben Yagoda, Slate, July 17, 2006