quality factor

British

noun

Former name: relative biological effectiveness. a property of ionizing radiations that affects their ability to cause biological effects. For weakly ionizing radiations such as gamma rays it has value 1 whilst for alpha rays it is about 20

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

Put simply: “Favor the quality factor and healthcare for more defensive exposure,” Mike Wilson, Morgan Stanley chief U.S. equity strategist, wrote in a note out Monday.

From Barron's • Mar. 18, 2026

One analyst said: “Favor the quality factor and healthcare for more defensive exposure.”

From Barron's • Mar. 18, 2026

No wonder the much-studied quality factor still sort of works.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 19, 2026

The key characteristic of a resonator is the quality factor — a measure of the efficiency of light trapping.

From Nature • Oct. 22, 2019

The main characteristic of an optical resonator is the quality factor — the ratio of the time over which the device can trap light to the period of the wave’s oscillation.

From Nature • Oct. 22, 2019

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023