parameter

English Online Dictionary. What means parameter‎? What does parameter mean?

English

Etymology

From French paramètre, from New Latin parametrum (“parameter”), from Ancient Greek παρα- (para-, “beside”) + μέτρον (métron, “measure”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pəˈɹæm.ɪ.tə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /pəˈɹæm.ə.tɚ/, [pəˈɹæm.ə.ɾɚ]

Noun

parameter (plural parameters)

1. A value kept constant during an experiment, equation, calculation, or similar, but varied over other versions of the experiment, equation, calculation, etc.

   Coordinate terms: metaparameter, subparameter, superparameter
2. (sciences) A variable that describes a property or characteristic of some system (material, object, event, etc.) or some aspect thereof.

   Coordinate terms: metaparameter, subparameter, superparameter, hyperparameter

   1. (statistics) Any measured quantity of a statistical population that summarises or describes an aspect of the population.
   2. (machine learning) A variable of a model that is trained by a machine learning algorithm.

      Coordinate term: feature
3. (programming) An input variable of a function definition, that gets an actual value (argument) at execution time.

   Synonym: formal parameter

4. (programming, loosely) An actual value given to such a formal parameter.

   Synonyms: argument, actual parameter

5. A characteristic or feature that distinguishes something from others.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:characteristic

6. (geometry) In the ellipse and hyperbola, a third proportional to any diameter and its conjugate, or in the parabola, to any abscissa and the corresponding ordinate.

7. (commutative algebra) Clipping of uniformizing parameter.
8. (crystallography) The ratio of the three crystallographic axes which determines the position of any plane.
9. (crystallography) The fundamental axial ratio for a given species.

Usage notes

• (programming): Some authors regard use of parameter to mean argument as imprecise, preferring that parameter refers only to the name that will be instantiated, and argument to refer to the value that will be supplied to it at runtime.

Derived terms

Related terms

• parametric
• parametrise, parametrize

Translations

See also

• variable

Further reading

• “parameter”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “parameter”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [pʰɑɑˈmeːˀd̥ɐ]

Noun

parameter c or n (singular definite parameteren or parameteret, plural indefinite parametre)

1. parameter

Declension

References

• “parameter” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin parameter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /paːˈraːmətər/, /ˈpaːraːˌmeːtər/, /paːˈraːˌmeːtər/
• Hyphenation: pa‧ra‧me‧ter

Noun

parameter m (plural parameters, diminutive parametertje n)

1. a parameter

Derived terms

• parametervoorstelling
• parametrisch

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From para- +‎ meter.

Noun

parameter m (definite singular parameteren, indefinite plural parametere or parametre or parametrer, definite plural parameterne or parametrene)

1. a parameter

References

• “parameter” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From para- +‎ meter.

Noun

parameter m (definite singular parameteren, indefinite plural parameterar or parametrar, definite plural parameterane or parametrane)

1. a parameter

References

• “parameter” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Noun

parameter c

1. a parameter

Declension