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➗ A math product 📊 About factorials
factorial

factorial

1 7.7
The product you get by multiplying all the positive whole numbers from 1 to a given number
  • noun
  • /fækˈtɔriəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : factorial
  • In mathematics, the value of three factorial is equal to six, because 3 x 2 x 1 equals 6.
  • factorial design
  • 2 factorial
  • factorial ANOVA

Examples

  • The overall design was a 2 (power extent) 2 (power source) 2 (gender of respondent) factorial.

    Academic text (2001)

  • So we'll take three times the factorial of two.

  • And then five factorial is going quite high if we join these together.

  • No, sorry, X to the I over I factorial, right?

  • I'll write that as I plus J over I factorial J factorial.

  • So there are N factorial ways you can scramble up N objects.

  • Esther, what is five factorial?

    Marry Me (2022)

  • The two-way factorial design resulted in an evaluation of two main effects and one interaction effect.

    Academic text (1992)

  • The experimental design used in this experiment was a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial within a randomized complete-block design.

    Academic text (1998)

  • The design was a 2 (High or Low Self-referencing) x 2 (Strong or Weak Arguments) factorial.

    Academic text (1996)

Surface Forms

factorial singular
factorials plural

Morphology

factorial = factor (opaque) = factor + ial

Although formed from 'factor' + the adjectival suffix '-ial', the technical mathematical meaning 'product of all positive integers up to n' is a specialized sense not directly predictable from 'factor'.

Etymology

Factorial comes from factor, which means 'maker' and also a 'number you multiply by', plus the ending -ial meaning 'related to'. So a factorial is about the many 'factors' you multiply together and is the product of all the positive numbers from 1 up to a given number.