WordNet
n. a point or fact or remark that settles something conclusively [syn: clincher]
Usage examples of "decisive factor".
That was the decisive factor in the British Empire's eventual defeat of New Zealand's well-armed indigenous Maori population.
But the decisive factor, the one she simply could not ignore, was timing, the possibility of getting the fighters in quickly enough, in sufficient strength, to stop the enemy dead and save nine million civilians.
In both cases the decisive factor will be whether the beast knows about me, and if so what it knows.
That chafing had been the decisive factor in starting the Schismatic Wars, but The Temple used those wars to put an end to such foolishness forever.
And this signal was always the decisive factor for him, much more so than any generally accepted, conventional and sanctioned signal.