(n)component, constituent, element, factor, ingredientan abstract part of something“jealousy was a component of his character”, “two constituents of a musical composition are melody and harmony”, “the grammatical elements of a sentence”, “a key factor in her success”, “humor: an effective ingredient of a speech”
(n)gene, cistron, factor(genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity“genes were formerly called factors”
