argument — English Dictionary

argument
Pronunciations (2)
  • /ˈɑːɡjʊmənt/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Received-Pronunciation
  • /ˈɑɹɡjʊmənt/
    Pronunciation notes
    • General-American

Noun

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

    Usage
    • also
    • Countable
    • Figurative
    Examples
    More examples (2)

    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.

  2. A fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason. 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.

    Usage
    • also
    • Countable
    • Figurative
    • Uncountable
    Examples
    More examples (2)

    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[…].

  3. A process of reasoning; argumentation.

    Usage
    • Countable
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    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.

    I shuddered when I thought of the possible consequences of my consent; but I felt that there was some justice in his argument.

    More examples (1)

    Meanwhile, the authoritarianism, which has turned left-liberalism into a movement for sneaks and prudes, was always going to play into the hands of the right. Free citizens have stopped listening to those who respond to the challenge of argument by screaming for the police to arrest the politically incorrect or for universities to ban speakers who depart from leftish orthodoxy.

  4. 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.

    Usage
    • Countable
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    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.

  5. A verbal dispute; a quarrel.

    Usage
    • Countable
    Examples

    The neighbours got into an argument about the branches of the trees that extended over the fence.

    More examples (1)

    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.

    In argument with men a woman ever / Goes by the worſe, whatever be her cauſe.

  6. Any dispute, altercation, or collision.

    Usage
    • broadly
    • Countable
    • euphemistic
    • Humorous
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    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.

    More examples (1)

    D5131 has received extensive cab damage, having been in an argument with Class 37 D6855 at Inverness in August 1971 - one of two accidents that occurred there on August 20.

  7. Any of the phrases that bear a syntactic connection to the verb of a clause.

    Usage
    • Countable
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    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.

  8. The independent variable of a function.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
  9. The phase of a complex number.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
  10. A quantity on which the calculation of another quantity depends.

    Usage
    • also
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    The altitude is the argument of the refraction.

  11. A value, or a reference to a value, passed to a function.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    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.

  12. A parameter at a function call; an actual parameter, as opposed to a formal parameter.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
  13. A matter in question; a business in hand.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Obsolete
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    As neere as I could ſift him on that argument, On ſome apparent danger ſeene in him, Aimde at your highnes, no inueterate malice.

    More examples (1)

    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.

  14. The subject matter of an artistic representation, discourse, or writing; a theme or topic.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Obsolete
    • Uncountable
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    [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.

    O know ſweet loue I alwaies write of you, And you and loue are ſtill my argument: […]

    More examples (2)

    [N]earer view / Briſtl'd with upright beams innumerable / Of rigid Spears, and Helmets throng'd, and Shields / Various, with boaſtful Argument portraid, / The banded Powers of Satan haſting on / With furious expedition; […]

    The abstract, or argument of the piece, is shortly as follows.

  15. Evidence, proof; (countable) an item of such evidence or proof.

    Usage
    • Archaic
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    [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

  1. To put forward as an argument; to argue.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    • nonstandard
    • Obsolete
    Examples
    More examples (5)

    [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.

    […] And Lord Lanſdown, in his Preface to the Britiſh Enchanters, exclaims againſt that Species of Dramatic Dialogue, which (inſtead of being free, natural, and eaſy, as Converſation ſhould be) is preciſe, or formal, argumenting pro and con, like Diſputants in a School; […]

    But, can this be alleged of him who has oft been heard to speak of faith and of works together—and who, after argumenting the utter worthlessness of the latter, has confined most rigidly to the former all of power and of efficacy that there is in the business of salvation?

    Here, in Milan, is an ancient tumble-down ruin of a church, is the mournful wreck of the most celebrated painting in the world—"The Last Supper," by Leonardo da Vinci. […] And the first thing that occurred was the infliction on us of a placard fairly reeking with wretched English. […] And then Peter is described as "argumenting in a threatening and angrily condition at Judas Iscariot."

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

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

    More examples (3)

    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.

    The settlement data do in fact not support the Dutch Model, and it is argumented that the ¹⁴C-evidence for the model is absent as well.

    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.

  2. To adduce evidence, to provide proof.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    • Obsolete
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    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: […]

Noun

  1. a fact or assertion offered as evidence that something is true

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    it was a strong argument that his hypothesis was true

  2. a contentious speech act; a dispute where there is strong disagreement

    Examples

    they were involved in a violent argument

  3. a discussion in which reasons are advanced for and against some proposition or proposal

    Examples

    the argument over foreign aid goes on and on

  4. a summary of the subject or plot of a literary work or play or movie

    Broader terms
    Examples

    the editor added the argument to the poem

  5. (computer science) a reference or value that is passed to a function, procedure, subroutine, command, or program

    Synonyms
  6. a variable in a logical or mathematical expression whose value determines the dependent variable

    Examples

    if f(x)=y, x is the independent variable

  7. a course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating a truth or falsehood; the methodical process of logical reasoning

    Examples

    I can't follow your line of reasoning

Word forms
argumentsarguementargumentsargumentingargumentedargumentedargumentedargumentestargumentedargumentedstargumentethargumentedargumentedargumented

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