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Force vs Factor - What's the difference?

force | factor | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between force and factor

is that force is to forcibly open (a door, lock etc.) while factor is to find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly).

In obsolete terms the difference between force and factor

is that force is to allow the force of; to value; to care for while factor is a doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.

As a proper noun Force

is falls. used in place names.

force

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) force, fors, forse, from (etyl) .

Noun

(wikipedia force)
  • Strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect.
  • :
  • * (1800-1859)
  • *:He was, in the full force of the words, a good man.
  • Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.
  • *(William Shakespeare), Henry VI, part II
  • *:which now they hold by force , and not by right
  • (lb) Anything that is able to make a big change in a person or thing.
  • A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body which is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn)
  • Something or anything that has the power to produce an effect upon something else.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=(Henry Petroski), volume=100, issue=2, page=112-3
  • , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Opening Doors , passage=A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place. Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.}}
  • (lb) A group that aims to attack, control, or constrain.
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare), (Cymbeline)
  • *:Is Lucius general of the forces ?
  • *
  • *:"A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there.."
  • *{{quote-news, year=2004, date=April 15, work=The Scotsman
  • , title= Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer , passage=For Lothian and Borders Police, the early-morning raid had come at the end one of biggest investigations carried out by the force , which had originally presented a dossier of evidence on the murder of Jodi Jones to the Edinburgh procurator-fiscal, William Gallagher, on 25 November last year.}}
  • (lb) The ability to attack, control, or constrain.
  • :
  • (lb) A magic trick in which the outcome is known to the magician beforehand, especially one involving the apparent free choice of a card by another person.
  • (lb) Legal validity.
  • :
  • (lb) Either unlawful violence, as in a "forced entry ", or lawful compulsion.
  • Usage notes
    * Adjectives often applied to "force": military, cultural, economic, gravitational, electric, magnetic, strong, weak, positive, negative, attractive, repulsive, good, evil, dark, physical, muscular, spiritual, intellectual, mental, emotional, rotational, tremendous, huge.
    Derived terms
    (Terms derived from "force") * air force * antiforce * brute force * centripetal force * centrifugal force * Coulomb force * Coriolis force * come into force * force field * force multiplier * force to be reckoned with * fundamental force * police force * spent force * task force * workforce

    Verb

    (forc)
  • (lb) To violate (a woman); to rape.
  • *:
  • *:For yf ye were suche fyfty as ye be / ye were not able to make resystence ageynst this deuyl / here lyeth a duchesse deede the whiche was the fayrest of alle the world wyf to syre Howel / duc of Bretayne / he hath murthred her in forcynge her / and has slytte her vnto the nauyl
  • *, II.1:
  • *:a young woman not farre from mee had headlong cast her selfe out of a high window, with intent to kill herselfe, only to avoid the ravishment of a rascally-base souldier that lay in her house, who offered to force her.
  • *, Bk.XVIII, Ch.xxi:
  • *:And I pray you for my sake to force yourselff there, that men may speke you worshyp.
  • (lb) To compel (someone or something) (to) do something.
  • *
  • *:Captain Edward Carlisle; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
  • *2011 , Tim Webb & Fiona Harvey, The Guardian , 23 March:
  • *:Housebuilders had warned that the higher costs involved would have forced them to build fewer homes and priced many homebuyers out of the market.
  • (lb) To constrain by force; to overcome the limitations or resistance of.
  • *, I.40:
  • *:Shall wee force the general law of nature, which in all living creatures under heaven is seene to tremble at paine?
  • (lb) To drive (something) by force, to propel (generally + prepositional phrase or adverb).
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:It stuck so fast, so deeply buried lay / That scarce the victor forced the steel away.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:to force the tyrant from his seat by war
  • *(John Webster) (c.1580-c.1634)
  • *:Ethelbert ordered that none should be forced into religion.
  • *2007 , (The Guardian) , 4 November:
  • *:In a groundbreaking move, the Pentagon is compensating servicemen seriously hurt when an American tank convoy forced them off the road.
  • (lb) To cause to occur (despite inertia, resistance etc.); to produce through force.
  • :
  • *2009 , "All things to Althingi", (The Economist) , 23 July:
  • *:The second problem is the economy, the shocking state of which has forced the decision to apply to the EU.
  • (lb) To forcibly open (a door, lock etc.).
  • :
  • To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.
  • To create an out by touching a base in advance of a runner who has no base to return to while in possession of a ball which has already touched the ground.
  • :
  • (lb) To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit that he/she does not hold.
  • (lb) To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce.
  • *(John Webster) (c.1580-c.1634)
  • *:What can the church force more?
  • (lb) To provide with forces; to reinforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison.
  • :(Shakespeare)
  • (lb) To allow the force of; to value; to care for.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:For me, I force not argument a straw.
  • Derived terms
    * enforce * forceful * forcible

    See also

    * Imperial unit: foot pound * metric unit: newton * coerce: To control by force.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable, Northern England) A waterfall or cascade.
  • * T. Gray
  • to see the falls or force of the river Kent

    Etymology 3

    See .

    Verb

    (forc)
  • To stuff; to lard; to farce.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Wit larded with malice, and malice forced with wit.

    Statistics

    *

    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