Factors? Latent Variables? Two terms for the same thing?

We are having a hard time figuring out if there is any difference between a factor and a latent variable. They seem to be the same thing... 

They basically refer to the same thing.  The distinction between the two (which is largely artificial and inconsequential for our use) is that the term "factors" has traditionally referred to unmeasured variables that one estimates via exploratory factor analysis, whereas the term "latent variables" has traditionally represented unmeasured variables that we model via structural equation modeling.  In reality the two are equivalent, so it is fine to say that we use EFA to get a sense for latent variables (i.e., factors) and we model relationships between factors (i.e., latent variables) via SEM.