1. anything that contributes causally to a result;
"a number of factors determined the outcome"
2. 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"
3. any of the numbers (or symbols) that form a product when multiplied together
4. one of two or more integers that can be exactly divided into another integer;
"what are the 4 factors of 6?"
5. a businessman who buys or sells for another in exchange for a commission
6. an independent variable in statistics
7. (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;