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parameter

UK/pəˈɹæm.ɪ.tə/US/pəˈɹæm.ə.tɚ/
nounC14 meaningsRare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,346 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: parameters

A parameter is a value you set that decides how something behaves. Turn the oven to 180 and the timer to forty minutes, and you have just fixed two parameters.

Scientists and statisticians use it strictly: a parameter is a quantity in a model that you hold fixed while everything else moves. Programmers use it for the named slot in a function that the caller fills in. In offices, the plural has drifted to mean limits — the parameters of the project, staying within the parameters, working inside agreed parameters. Keep it away from perimeter, which is a boundary line you can walk around; the two swap places in people's mouths constantly. The stress falls on the second syllable: pa-RAM-eter.

Definitions of parameter

  1. 1nounparameterA value that is set in advance and that determines how a system, model or process behaves.C1~65%

    “Change one parameter and the whole simulation gives a different answer.”

    synonyms: setting

  2. 2nounpluralIn the plural, the limits inside which something has to happen.C1~2%

    “We can redesign the front page, but only within the parameters the client set.”

  3. 3nounprogrammingIn programming, a named input in a function definition, filled by a value when the function is called.C1~17%

    “The function takes a second parameter for the number of decimal places.”

  4. 4nounmathsIn maths and statistics, a quantity that describes a whole population or family of equations and stays fixed in a given case.C2~16%

    “The mean of the population is a parameter, not something you measure directly.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 6 sentences found in the wild and placed 6 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

parameter is a set value.

Where it comes from

Parameter arrived from French paramètre, which came from New Latin parametrum, a word built by scientists out of Greek pieces: para-, beside, and metron, a measure. A parameter is literally a measure taken alongside the thing you are describing — a number that sits next to the model and tells it what shape to take.

  1. Ancient Greek

    παρα- — beside

  2. New Latin

    parametrum — parameter

  3. French

    paramètre

  4. English, today

    parameter

Built from

  • μέτρον · Ancient Greek — measure

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Academic English, A Man Called Ove, Computing & Code

First appears in chapter 10 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

parameter in the wild

  • Thus a "statistical parameter" can be more precisely referred to as a population parameter.

    Statistical parameter

  • The uncertainty parameter U is introduced by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) to quantify the uncertainty of a perturbed orbital solution for a minor planet.

    Uncertainty parameter

  • The uncertainty parameter is also known as condition code in JPL's Small-Body Database Browser.

    Uncertainty parameter

  • In medicine, monitoring is the observation of a disease, condition or one or several medical parameters over time.

    Monitoring (medicine)

  • A parameter can specify anything, but often it specifies a file by name or path.

    Command (computing)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.