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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

factory.

A building or other place where manufacturing takes place.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfæk.tə.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfæk.tɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfæk.tɚ.i/General-American/ˈfæk.tɹi/General-American
  1. A building or other place where manufacturing takes place.

    History has shown that, even without cheap labor, factories run perfectly well.
  2. A police station.

    UK · slang
  3. A device or process that produces or manufactures something.

  4. A factory farm.

    chicken factory; pig factory
  5. In a computer program or library, a function, method, etc. which creates an object.

  6. The original state of an electronic device, as it was when it came from the manufacturer.

    attributive
    factory settings; factory defaults; a factory reset
  7. The position or state of being a factor.

    Scotland · archaic
  8. A trading establishment, especially set up by merchants working in a foreign country.

    historical
  9. An invoice or inventory.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Probably from factor + -y, although in noun sense 1 (“a place where manufacturing takes place”) apparently influenced strongly by association with Classical Latin fact-, the past participial stem of faciō (“to make”); compare manufactory and Latin factōrium (“an oil press”). In noun sense 8 (“a trading establishment”), originally after Portuguese feitoria. In noun sense 9 (“an invoice or inventory”), probably after obsolete Dutch facture (“bill”); see facture. Compare Dutch factorij, Middle French factorie, Spanish factoría.

adj/ˈfæk.tə.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfæk.tɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfæk.tɚ.i/General-American/ˈfæk.tɹi/General-American
  1. Having come from the factory in the state it is currently in; original, stock.

    colloquial · not-comparable · usually
    See how there's another layer of metal there? That's not factory.
Where this word comes from

Probably from factor + -y, although in noun sense 1 (“a place where manufacturing takes place”) apparently influenced strongly by association with Classical Latin fact-, the past participial stem of faciō (“to make”); compare manufactory and Latin factōrium (“an oil press”). In noun sense 8 (“a trading establishment”), originally after Portuguese feitoria. In noun sense 9 (“an invoice or inventory”), probably after obsolete Dutch facture (“bill”); see facture. Compare Dutch factorij, Middle French factorie, Spanish factoría.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.