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A fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason.alsocountablefiguratively
- 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.
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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.alsocountablefiguratively
- 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
- 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
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A process of reasoning; argumentation.countable
- 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.
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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.countable
- 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.
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A verbal dispute; a quarrel.countable
- The neighbours got into an argument about the branches of the trees that extended over the fence.
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Any dispute, altercation, or collision.broadlycountableeuphemistic
- 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.
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Any of the phrases that bear a syntactic connection to the verb of a clause.countable
- 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
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The independent variable of a function.countableuncountable
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The phase of a complex number.countableuncountable
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A quantity on which the calculation of another quantity depends.alsocountableuncountable
- The altitude is the argument of the refraction.
syn. argument · assertion · basis · claim · contention · proof
ant. recantation