Cofactor

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A contributing factor.

    "Although many believe HTLV-III plays a primary role in the development of AIDS, it is still unresolved how the virus works and what cofactors, if any, play a role."

  2. 2
    a substance (as a coenzyme) that must join with another to produce a given result wordnet
  3. 3
    A substance, especially a coenzyme or a metal, that must be present for an enzyme to function.
  4. 4
    A molecule that binds to and regulates the activity of a protein.
  5. 5
    The result of a number being divided by one of its factors.
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  1. 6
    The signed determinant of the submatrix produced by removing the row and column containing a specified element; primarily used in the recursive definition and calculation of the determinant of a matrix.

Synonyms

All synonyms
apoproteinholoproteinminorminor

Example

More examples

"Although many believe HTLV-III plays a primary role in the development of AIDS, it is still unresolved how the virus works and what cofactors, if any, play a role."

Etymology

From co- + factor.

Related phrases

cofactor expansioncofactor matrix

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.