limiting factor
Americannoun
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Physiology. the slowest, therefore rate-limiting, step in a process or reaction involving several steps.
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Biology. an environmental factor that tends to limit population size.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Imagination was never the limiting factor for Poetic Kinetics creative director Patrick Shearn’s fourth project for Coachella.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026
"Our research shows that iron is a limiting factor in phytoplankton's ability to make oxygen in vast regions of the ocean."
From Science Daily • Jan. 12, 2026
Relatively high mortgage rates have been a limiting factor for the housing market this year.
From Barron's • Dec. 10, 2025
AI’s limiting factor is no longer algorithms or data — it’s the brute-force physics of data-center expansion.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 3, 2025
That's really the limiting factor to life support.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
