A factor
n.— «They judged the participants not only for their singing talent but also their attitude or the “A” factor as it is called.» —“Telly Chakkar: Zee’s ‘Antakshari’ checks for the ‘A’ factor” Indiantelevision.com (India) Apr. 4, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
After hearing our conversation about how dictionaries decide on a preferred pronunciation, and specifically about how to pronounce aioli, Vern from San Diego, California, wrote to say that a friend once made fun of him for pronouncing grimace with a...