Word.ws English Dictionary

x-factor

x-factor is the alternative spelling of X factor.

Meaning of X factor

Noun

X factor (plural X factors)

  1. (idiomatic) An unknown or hard-to-define influence; a factor with unknown or unforeseeable consequences.
    • We slid into our office, past two women discussing the "X factor," an apparently undefined quality their firm felt they lacked.1992, Lia Matera, Prior Convictions, page 121
  2. (idiomatic) A special talent, ability or quality or its indefinable cause.
  3. Prothrombinase.
    Synonyms:
    factor X
  4. The proportionality constant which converts CO emission line brightness to molecular hydrogen mass.

Noun capitalized: X-factor

X-factor (plural X-factors)

  1. (alternative) Alternative spelling of X factor.
    • That visual wonder elevated the first Zootopia, but the X-factor is gone in the sequel; everything looks brighter, flatter, and cheaper.2025 November 25, Caroline Siede, “Zootopia 2 is a stagnant sequel with one stellar subplot”, in AV Club

Forms of x-factor

pluralx-factors
pluralX-factors

Questions about x-factor

What is x-factor the alternative spelling of?
X-factor is the alternative spelling of X factor.
What part of speech is x-factor?
X-factor is a noun.
What is the plural of x-factor?
The plural of x-factor is x-factors.

Words near x-factor in the dictionary

  1. X-Days
  2. x-direction
  3. X-disease
  4. x-div.
  5. x-dressing
  6. x-factor
  7. x-factors
  8. X-Filesy
  9. X-gal
  10. x-hat
  11. x-height

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: x-factor (page history and authors); X-factor (page history and authors); X factor (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “x-factor.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/x-factor. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.