argument

Etymology

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French, from Latin argumentum (“proof, evidence, token, subject, contents”), from arguō (“to prove, argue”); see argue.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɑːɡjʊmənt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑɹɡjumənt/, /ˈɑɹɡjʊmənt/, /ˈɑɹɡjəmənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

argument (countable and uncountable, plural arguments)

1. A fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason.
   • Ray

     There is […] no more palpable and convincing argument of the existence of a Deity.

2. A verbal dispute; a quarrel.
3. A process of reasoning.
   • John Locke

     The argument is not about things, but names.

4. (philosophy, logic) A series of propositions organized so that the final proposition is a conclusion which is intended to follow logically from the preceding propositions, which function as premises.
   • 2001, Mark Sainsbury, chapter 1, in Logical Forms — An Introduction to Philosophical Logic, 2nd edition, Blackwell Publishing, →ISBN, §8, page 35:

        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.

5. (mathematics) The independent variable of a function.
6. (mathematics) The phase of a complex number.
7. (programming) A value, or reference to a value, passed to a function.
   • 2011 July 20, Edwin Mares, “Propositional Functions”, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy‎, retrieved 2012-07-15:

     In ‘The Critic of Arguments’ (1892), 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 (ibid. 420).

   Parameters are like labeled fillable blanks used to define a function whereas arguments are passed to a function when calling it, filling in those blanks.

8. (programming) A parameter in a function definition; an actual parameter, as opposed to a formal parameter.
9. (linguistics) Any of the phrases that bears a syntactic connection to the verb of a clause.
   • 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 7, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 372:

     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.

10. (astronomy) The quantity on which another quantity in a table depends.

    The altitude is the argument of the refraction.

11. The subject matter of a discourse, writing, or artistic representation; theme or topic; also, an abstract or summary, as of the contents of a book, chapter, poem.
    • 1598, William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 76":

      You and love are still my argument.

    • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act 3 Scene 2:

      Belike this show imports the argument of the play.

      This show is perhaps the subject of the play.

    • Jeffrey

      the abstract or argument of the piece

    • Milton

      [shields] with boastful argument portrayed

12. Matter for question; business in hand.
    • Shakespeare

      Sheathed their swords for lack of argument.

Verb

argument (third-person singular simple present arguments, present participle argumenting, simple past and past participle argumented)

1. To put forward as an argument; to argue.
   • 1983, Gregory J. Scott, Marketing Bhutan's Potatoes: Present Patterns and Future Prospects, page 77:

     Hence, domestic potato marketing cannot be argumented in such fashion.

   • 1993, Andreas Gourmelon, “A Method to Analyse the Strain of Memory of Elderly Persons Working with Information Technologies”, in Rehabilitation Technology: Strategies for the European Union, →ISBN, page 211:

     It may be argumented that many elderly persons stay at home and do not even try to use a ticket machine.

   • 1999, Samuel F. Berkovic, Genetics of Focal Epilepsies: Clinical Aspects and Molecular Biology, →ISBN, page 57:

     This was first enunciated by Loiseau et al. (1967) when he argumented that RE 'does not exist' in clinical practice, referring to its pure, typical form.

   • 2012, Harry Fokkens & ‎Franco Nicolis, Background to Beakers, →ISBN:

     The settlement data do in fact not support the Dutch Model, and it is argumented that the C-evidence for the model is absent as well.

   • 2013, Daniel Gurski, Customer Experiences Affect Customer Loyalty, →ISBN, page 45:

     Although it is argumented that organizational learning is based on individual learning (Song et al., 2008), the insights from this study are not generalizable for business-to-business markets.

Further reading

• argument in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• argument in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Noun

argument m (plural arguments)

1. argument (reason)
2. (computing) argument (reason)
3. plot, storyline
4. (mathematics) argument (reason)
5. (grammar) argument (reason)

Pronunciation

• audio (Czech Republic)

  (file)

Noun

argument m

1. argument (fact or statement used to support a proposition)

Further reading

• argument in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• argument in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Noun

argument n (singular definite argumentet, plural indefinite argumenter)

1. argument

References

• “argument” in Den Danske Ordbog

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin argūmentum, from arguō (“prove, argue”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aʁ.ɡy.mɑ̃/

• audio (France)

  (file)

Noun

argument m (plural arguments)

1. argument

   Quels que soient les arguments que vous avancez, je ne pourrai pas vous croire.

   No matter what arguments you propose, I won't be able to believe you.

2. (grammar) argument of a verb, phrase syntactically connected to a verb (object and subject)

Further reading

• “argument” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Etymology

From Latin argumentum

Noun

argument n (definite singular argumentet, indefinite plural argument or argumenter, definite plural argumenta or argumentene)

1. argument

References

• “argument” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Etymology

From Latin argumentum

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑrɡʉˈmɛnt/

Noun

argument n (definite singular argumentet, indefinite plural argument, definite plural argumenta)

1. argument

References

• “argument” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /arɡǔment/
• Hyphenation: ar‧gu‧ment

Noun

argùment m (Cyrillic spelling аргу̀мент)

1. argument (fact or statement used to support a proposition)
2. (philosophy, logic, mathematics, programming) argument

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Noun

argument n

1. an argument; a reason
2. (mathematics) an argument; an independent variable passed to a function
3. (programming) an argument; a variable passed to a function