parameter

• parametre

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pəˈɹæm.ɪ.tə/

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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.
   • 2007, Charles M. Hansen, Hansen Solubility Parameters, →ISBN:

     As molecular surface-to-surface contacts control both solution phenomena and surface phenomena, it is not surprising that various correlations of cohesion parameters and surface phenomena can be found.

   • 2012, Kai-Sheng Lu, Rational Function Systems and Electrical Networks with Multi-Parameters, →ISBN:

     The independent parameters of a system or network over F(z) reflect its structure and determine its structural properties (such as the reducibility of coefficient matrix A and its characteristic polynomial det(λI −A), controllability and observability over F(z), etc.).

   • 2014, M. Amouroux & ‎A. El Jai, Control of Distributed Parameter Systems 1989, →ISBN:

     On the other hand, if we have suitable data, we may be able to develop some direct computational methods for the essentially nonlinear parameter identification problems, in which fewer or even no nonlinear processes are involved.

2. (sciences) a variable that describes some system (material, object, event etc.) or some aspect thereof
   • 2007, Charles M. Hansen, Hansen Solubility Parameters: A User's Handbook, Second Edition, CRC Press →ISBN, page 113

     Cohesion parameters (solubility parameters) can be used with full theoretical justification to characterize many surfaces ...

   • 2012, Wolfgang Desch, Franz Kappel, Karl Kunisch, Control and Estimation of Distributed Parameter Systems: International Conference in Maria Trost (Austria), July 15–21, 2001, Birkhäuser →ISBN, page 41

     To this end, we derive an a posteriori error estimator for the error with respect to the unknown parameter.

   • 2012, Michael Lemmon, Competitively Inhibited Neural Networks for Adaptive Parameter Estimation, Springer Science & Business Media →ISBN, page 74

     The parameter estimation problem considered in this chapter consists of estimating the unknown parameter, ū [a barred v, actually], given N samples of the observation process.

3. (programming) An input variable of a procedure definition, that gets an actual value (argument) at execution time (formal parameter).

   Roughly, a tuple of arguments could be thought of as a vector, whereas a tuple of parameters could be thought of as a covector (i.e., linear functional). When a function is called, a parameter tuple becomes "bound" to an argument tuple, allowing the function instance itself to be computed to yield a return value. This would be roughly analogous to applying a covector to a vector (by taking their dot product (or, rather, matrix-product of row vector and column vector)) to obtain a scalar.

4. (programming) An actual value given to such a formal parameter (argument or actual parameter).
5. A characteristic or feature that distinguishes something from others.
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.

   The parameter of the principal axis of a conic section is called the latus rectum.

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

• (the value used to instantiate the name): 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.

• (value passed to a function): argument
• (characteristic distinguishing something from others): distinguishing feature
• See also Thesaurus:characteristic

• actual parameter
• formal parameter

• parametric
• parametrise, parametrize

• variable

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

• IPA^(key): /paˈraːmətər/
• IPA^(key): /ˈparaˌmetər/ (

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parameter m (plural parameters, diminutive parametertje n)

1. a parameter

From para- +‎ meter

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

1. a parameter

• “parameter” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From para- +‎ meter

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

1. a parameter

• “parameter” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

parameter c

1. a parameter