Strictly, facilitation refers to the property of certain types of process whereby they promote their own repetition. This property is a common factor in some systems, underlying both the process of identical multiplication and of adaptive modification. The notion of enabling continuance of a process, concept or thing through its reproduction (identical or modified), or next steps, or adaptive advancement is the more commonly used meaning of facilitating. It is also used more loosely to mean "supporting something to happen or develop".