argument
verb
- to adduce arguments, argue
noun
- angle between the positive real axis and the line joining the origin and the number
- brief summary in literature
- act/process of presenting, or disputing, a case to a specific listener/adjudicator
- actual input passed to a function, procedure, or routine. A parameter is a special kind of variable, used in a subroutine to refer to one of the pieces of data provided as input to the subroutine. These pieces of data are called arguments. For example, def add(x, y): return x + y, then x, y are parameters, while if this is called as add(2, 3), then 2, 3 are the arguments
- argue with, have an argument with someone else
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈɑːɡjʊmənt/ / /ˈɑɹɡjʊmənt/ / /-ɡju-/
noun
Etymology: Etymology tree Latin arguō Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥tom Proto-Italic *-mentom Latin -mentum Latin argūmentumder. Anglo-Norman arguementbor. Middle English argument English argument From Middle English argument, from Anglo-Norman and Old French arguement, from Latin argumentum. The English word is analysable as argue + -ment. Doublet of argumentum. Displaced native Old English racu and ġeflit.
- A fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason.
“There is no greater, at leaſt no more palpable and convincing Argument of the Exiſtence of a Deity than the admirable Art and Wiſdom that diſcovers itſelf in the make and conſtitution, the order and diſpoſition, the ends and uſes of all the parts and members of this ſtately fabrick of Heaven and Earth.”
“Says Plowdon [i.e., Edmund Plowden], the whale so caught belongs to the King and Queen, “because of its superior excellence.” And by the soundest commentators this has ever been held a cogent argument in such matters.”
- A fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason.
“Consider the argument: / 15) I am hungry; therefore I am hungry. / Intuitively this should count as valid. But suppose we thought of the components of arguments as sentences, and suppose we imagine the context shifting between the utterance of the premise and the utterance of the conclusion. Suppose you are hungry and utter the premise, and I am not hungry and utter the conclusion. Then we would have a true premise and a false conclusion, so the argument would not be valid. Clearly we need to avoid such problems, and introducing the notion of a proposition, in the style of this section, is one way of doing so.”
“In ‘The Critic of Arguments’ (1892), [Charles Sanders] Peirce adopts a notion that is even closer to that of a propositional function. There he develops the concept of the ‘rhema’. He says the rhema is like a relative term, but it is not a term. It contains a copula, that is, when joined to the correct number of arguments it produces an assertion. For example, ‘__ is bought by __ from __ for __’ is a four-place rhema. Applying it to four objects a, b, c, and d produces the assertion that a is bought by b from c for d[…].”
- A process of reasoning; argumentation.
“Indeed, I cannot commend my life; for I am conſcious to my ſelf of many failings: therein, I know alſo that a man by his converſation, may ſoon overthrow what by argument or perſwaſion he doth labour to faſten upon others for their good: […]”
“For if the Idea be not agreed on, betwixt the Speaker and Hearer, for which the Words ſtand, the Argument is not about Things, but Names.”
- An abstract or summary of the content of a literary work such as a book, a poem or a major section such as a chapter, included in the work before the content itself; (figuratively) the contents themselves.
“If I would broach the veſſels of my loue, / And try the argument of hearts, by borrowing, / Men, and mens fortunes, could I frankely vſe / As I can bid thee ſpeake.”
- A verbal dispute; a quarrel.
“The neighbours got into an argument about the branches of the trees that extended over the fence.”
“Ar[mado]. Come hither, come hither: How did this argument begin. Boy. By ſaying that a Coſtard was broken in a ſhin, Then cald you for the Lenuoy [i.e. l'envoy]. Clow[ne; i.e., Costard]. True, and I for a Plantan, thus came your argument in, Then the boyes fat Lenuoy, the Gooſe that you bought, and he ended the market.”
- Any dispute, altercation, or collision.
“Steve got in a physical argument with his neighbor and came away with a black eye.”
“While biking home, he got in an argument with the pavement.”
- Any of the phrases that bear a syntactic connection to the verb of a clause.
“In numerous works over the past two decades, beginning with the pioneering work of Gruber (1965), Fillmore (1968a), and Jackendoff (1972), it has been argued that each Argument (i.e. Subject or Complement) of a Predicate bears a particular thematic role (alias theta-role, or θ-role to its Predicate), and that the set of thematic functions which Arguments can fulfil are drawn from a highly restricted, finite, universal set.”
- The independent variable of a function.
- The phase of a complex number.
- A quantity on which the calculation of another quantity depends.
“The altitude is the argument of the refraction.”
- A value, or a reference to a value, passed to a function.
“Parameters are like labelled fillable blanks used to define a function whereas arguments are passed to a function when calling it, filling in those blanks.”
- A parameter at a function call; an actual parameter, as opposed to a formal parameter.
- A matter in question; a business in hand.
“As neere as I could ſift him on that argument, On ſome apparent danger ſeene in him, Aimde at your highnes, no inueterate malice.”
“On, on, you Nobliſh Engliſh, / Whoſe blood is fet from Fathers of Warre-proofe: / Fathers, that like ſo many Alexanders, / Haue in theſe parts from Morne till Euen fought, / And ſheath’d their Swords, for lack of argument.”
- The subject matter of an artistic representation, discourse, or writing; a theme or topic.
“[I]n vttering the ſtuffe ye receiued of the one, in declaring the order ye tooke with the other, ye ſhall neuer lacke, neither matter, nor maner, what to write, nor how to write in this kinde of Argument.”
“Belike this ſhow imports the argument of the play.”
- Evidence, proof; (countable) an item of such evidence or proof.
“[F]or louing me, by my troth it is no addition to her wit, nor no great argument of her follie, for I will be horribly in loue with her, […]”
verb
Etymology: Etymology tree Latin arguō Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥tom Proto-Italic *-mentom Latin -mentum Latin argūmentum Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin argūmentorder. Old French argumenterbor. Middle English argumenten English argument The obsolete senses are derived from Middle English argumenten (“to argue, discuss; to consider, reflect”), from Old French argumenter (“to argue”), from Latin argūmentārī (“to adduce arguments or proof, prove, reason; to adduce (something) as argument or proof; to conclude”), from argūmentum (“argument (for a position); evidence, proof; point, theme; thesis, topic; plot (in theatre)”) (see further at etymology 1) + -or (the first-person singular present passive indicative of -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). The current sense is derived from the noun.
- To put forward as an argument; to argue.
“[I]t is moſt certaine, that after Herodotus and other auncient writers, it is ſafer to call theſe [elephants' tusks] teeth, then hornes; and I will breefly ſet downe the reaſons of Philoſtratus, that will haue them to be teeth, and afterward of Grapaldus [i.e., Francesco Mario Grapaldi], Aelianus, and Pauſanias, that would make them horns, and ſo leaue the reader to conſider whether opinion he thinketh moſt agreeable to truth. […] Thus they argument for the horns of Elephants.”
“Both kneeling, and all the reſt of the Popiſh Ceremonies, may well be compared to the Brazen Serpent. […] I. Rainoldes [i.e., John Rainolds] argumenteth, from Hezekiah his breaking downe of the Brazen Serpent, to the plucking downe of the ſigne of the Croſſe.”
- To adduce evidence, to provide proof.
“Albeit that it apperteneth to the apoſtolis, be the puiſtoun of God to tak ordour in all materis off debait cõcernyng ye faith, & ſpecialie to iterprete ye ſcripturis, as yat quhilkis had yͤ ſpreit of god, & wer yͤ trew kirk: It argumẽtis [argumentis] not yat vtheris, quha hes ꝯuenit [conuenit] ſenſyne in generale ꝯſales [consales] had the ſpreit of GOD, or wer the trew kirk: […]”