noun
argument
An input value supplied to a function or operation.
The function accepts a filename as its first argument.
Etymology
Latin argumentum meant evidence or a means of demonstrating something. Mathematics applied argument to a quantity determining another quantity; computing adopted it for a value supplied to a function.
More examples
- Pass the date as the second argument.
- The program checks whether both arguments are numbers.
- An empty argument caused the operation to fail.
Forms
argument · arguments
Similar words
- parameter
- A named input slot rather than the value supplied to it.
- operand
- A value acted on by an operator rather than necessarily a function.