Idea vs. Factor — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Idea and Factor
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Definitions
Idea
In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are abstract concepts. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object.
Factor
A circumstance, fact, or influence that contributes to a result
His skill was a factor in ensuring that so much was achieved
She worked fast, conscious of the time factor
Idea
A thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action
Recently, the idea of linking pay to performance has caught on
It's a good idea to do some research before you go
Factor
A number or quantity that when multiplied with another produces a given number or expression
An amount that exceeds it by a factor of 1000 or more
Idea
The aim or purpose
I took a job with the idea of getting some money together
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Factor
A level on a scale of measurement.
Idea
(in Platonic thought) an eternally existing pattern of which individual things in any class are imperfect copies.
Factor
Any of a number of substances in the blood, mostly identified by numerals, which are involved in coagulation.
Idea
Something, such as a thought or conception, that is the product of mental activity.
Factor
An agent who buys and sells goods on commission
His father was chief factor for the Hudson's Bay Company
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Idea
An opinion, conviction, or principle
Has some strange political ideas.
Factor
Another term for factorize
Last year researchers factored a number 155 digits long
Idea
A plan, purpose, or goal
She started school with the idea of becoming a doctor.
Factor
(of a company) sell (its invoices) to a factor
They collected rents while he factored these forfeited estates
Idea
The gist or significance
The idea of the article is that investing in green technology can save you money in the long run.
Factor
One that actively contributes to an accomplishment, result, or process
"Surprise is the greatest factor in war" (Tom Clancy).
Idea
A sense that something can happen; a notion or expectation
They have this idea that we can just drop what we're doing and go to the park.
Factor
One who acts for someone else; an agent.
Idea
(Music) A theme or motif.
Factor
One who purchases accounts receivable at a discount.
Idea
In the philosophy of Plato, a non-physical form or archetype to which beings in phenomenal reality correspond only as imperfect replicas.
Factor
(Mathematics) One of two or more quantities that divides a given quantity without a remainder. For example, 2 and 3 are factors of 6; a and b are factors of ab.
Idea
In the philosophy of Kant, a concept of reason that is transcendent but nonempirical.
Factor
A quantity by which a stated quantity is multiplied or divided, so as to indicate an increase or decrease in a measurement
The rate increased by a factor of ten.
Idea
In the philosophy of Hegel, absolute truth; the complete and ultimate product of reason.
Factor
A gene. No longer in technical usage.
Idea
(Obsolete) A mental image of something remembered.
Factor
(Physiology) A substance that functions in a specific biochemical reaction or bodily process, such as blood coagulation.
Idea
(philosophy) An abstract archetype of a given thing, compared to which real-life examples are seen as imperfect approximations; pure essence, as opposed to actual examples.
Factor
To determine or indicate explicitly the factors of
If you factor 70, you get 2, 5, and 7.
Idea
(obsolete) The conception of someone or something as representing a perfect example; an ideal.
Factor
To engage in purchasing accounts receivable at a discount.
Idea
(obsolete) The form or shape of something; a quintessential aspect or characteristic.
Factor
(obsolete) A doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.
The factor of the trading post bought the furs.
Idea
An image of an object that is formed in the mind or recalled by the memory.
The mere idea of you is enough to excite me.
Factor
An agent or representative.
Idea
More generally, any result of mental activity; a thought, a notion; a way of thinking.
Factor
(legal)
Idea
A conception in the mind of something to be done; a plan for doing something, an intention.
I have an idea of how we might escape.
Factor
A commission agent.
Idea
A purposeful aim or goal; intent
Yeah, that's the idea.
Factor
A person or business organization that provides money for another's new business venture; one who finances another's business.
Idea
A vague or fanciful notion; a feeling or hunch; an impression.
He had the wild idea that if he leant forward a little, he might be able to touch the mountain-top.
Factor
A business organization that lends money on accounts receivable or buys and collects accounts receivable.
Idea
(music) A musical theme or melodic subject.
Factor
One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result.
The greatest factor in the decision was the need for public transportation.
The economy was a factor in this year's budget figures.
Idea
The transcript, image, or picture of a visible object, that is formed by the mind; also, a similar image of any object whatever, whether sensible or spiritual.
Her sweet idea wandered through his thoughts.
Being the right idea of your fatherBoth in your form and nobleness of mind.
This representation or likeness of the object being transmitted from thence [the senses] to the imagination, and lodged there for the view and observation of the pure intellect, is aptly and properly called its idea.
Factor
(mathematics) Any of various objects multiplied together to form some whole.
3 is a factor of 12, as are 2, 4 and 6.
The factors of the Klein four-group are both cyclic of order 2.
Idea
A general notion, or a conception formed by generalization.
Alice had not the slightest idea what latitude was.
Factor
(causal analysis) Influence; a phenomenon that affects the nature, the magnitude, and/or the timing of a consequence.
The launch temperature was a factor of the Challenger disaster.
Idea
Hence: Any object apprehended, conceived, or thought of, by the mind; a notion, conception, or thought; the real object that is conceived or thought of.
Whatsoever the mind perceives in itself, or as the immediate object of perception, thought, or undersanding, that I call idea.
Factor
(economics) A resource used in the production of goods or services, a factor of production.
Idea
A belief, option, or doctrine; a characteristic or controlling principle; as, an essential idea; the idea of development.
That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.
What is now "idea" for us? How infinite the fall of this word, since the time where Milton sang of the Creator contemplating his newly-created world, -"how it showed . . . Answering his great idea," -to its present use, when this person "has an idea that the train has started," and the other "had no idea that the dinner would be so bad!"
Factor
(Scotland) A steward or bailiff of an estate.
Idea
A plan or purpose of action; intention; design.
I shortly afterwards set off for that capital, with an idea of undertaking while there the translation of the work.
Factor
(transitive) To find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly).
Idea
A rational conception; the complete conception of an object when thought of in all its essential elements or constituents; the necessary metaphysical or constituent attributes and relations, when conceived in the abstract.
Factor
To be a product of other objects.
Idea
A fiction object or picture created by the imagination; the same when proposed as a pattern to be copied, or a standard to be reached; one of the archetypes or patterns of created things, conceived by the Platonists to have excited objectively from eternity in the mind of the Deity.
Thence to behold this new-created world,The addition of his empire, how it showedIn prospect from his throne, how good, how fair,Answering his great idea.
Factor
To sell a debt or debts to an agent (the factor) to collect.
Idea
The content of cognition; the main thing you are thinking about;
It was not a good idea
The thought never entered my mind
Factor
One who transacts business for another; an agent; a substitute; especially, a mercantile agent who buys and sells goods and transacts business for others in commission; a commission merchant or consignee. He may be a home factor or a foreign factor. He may buy and sell in his own name, and he is intrusted with the possession and control of the goods; and in these respects he differs from a broker.
My factor sends me word, a merchant's fledThat owes me for a hundred tun of wine.
Idea
A personal view;
He has an idea that we don't like him
Factor
A steward or bailiff of an estate.
Idea
An approximate calculation of quantity or degree or worth;
An estimate of what it would cost
A rough idea how long it would take
Factor
One of the elements or quantities which, when multiplied together, form a product.
Idea
Your intention; what you intend to do;
He had in mind to see his old teacher
The idea of the game is to capture all the pieces
Factor
One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result; a constituent; a contributory cause.
The materal and dynamical factors of nutrition.
Idea
(music) melodic subject of a musical composition;
The theme is announced in the first measures
The accompanist picked up the idea and elaborated it
Factor
To resolve (a quantity) into its factors.
Factor
Anything that contributes causally to a result;
A number of factors determined the outcome
Factor
An abstract part of something;
Jealousy was a component of his character
Two constituents of a musical composition are melody and harmony
The grammatical elements of a sentence
A key factor in her success
Humor: an effective ingredient of a speech
Factor
Any of the numbers (or symbols) that form a product when multiplied together
Factor
One of two or more integers that can be exactly divided into another integer;
What are the 4 factors of 6?
Factor
A businessman who buys or sells for another in exchange for a commission
Factor
An independent variable in statistics
Factor
(genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity;
Genes were formerly called factors
Factor
Resolve into factors;
A quantum computer can factor the number 15
