Multiplication is one of the four basic Arithmetic Operations. It can be thought as a repeated addition since multiplying two numbers is equivalent to add as many copies of one of them, called the multiplicand, as the quantity of the other one, called the multiplier. The result is called product.

As indicated in the diagram above, multiplication can be represented with the sign $\times$ but there are other ways to represent it. Another common notation is using a mid-line dot $\cdot$. $$\begin{array}{c}2\cdot 3=6\end{array}$$ It is important to notice that the order in which the operation is performed doesn't affect the result. This property is know as Commutative Property of Multiplication. $$\begin{array}{c}2\times 3=6\\ 3\times 2=6\end{array}$$ Because of this property, both the multiplicand and multiplier could play each other's role, so it is very common to refer to both indistinctly as factors.