Factory Meaning
/ˈfæk.tə.ɹi/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA building or other place where manufacturing takes place.
nounA police station.
Sentence Examples
Thanks to the technological innovation, the maximum output of the factory has doubled.
The supervisor enforced the rules here in this factory.
Gradually factory workers have been displaced by machines.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The old ____ closed down after fifty years of production.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The car ____ employs thousands of people from the local community and surrounding areas.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[…] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit."
— 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
"The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures."
— 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
"The guys all knew each other and we were having a jolly old chinwag as we marched them out of the house in front of their stunned neighbours and into a van we had called to take them all to the Factory (police station)."
— 2010, Harry Keeble, Kris Hollington, Crack House:
"Radio became a star factory for journalists."
— 2009, Sam Riley, Star Struck: An Encyclopedia of Celebrity Culture, page 200:
"The task factory […] is the object that is responsible for creating instances of those tasks dynamically."
— 2010, Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi, William Bartholomew, Inside the Microsoft Build Engine:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The old ____ closed down after fifty years of production.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The car ____ employs thousands of people from the local community and surrounding areas.