parameter

See also: Parameter, and paraméter

English

Alternative forms

• parametre

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] French paramètre, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] New Latin parametrum (“parameter”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek παρά (pará, “beside”) + μέτρον (métron, “measure”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pəˈɹæm.ɪ.tə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

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.
   • 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.

Usage notes

• (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.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• actual parameter
• formal parameter

Related terms

• parametric
• parametrise, parametrize

Translations

variable kept constant during an experiment, calculation or similar

• Arabic: وَسِيط m (wasīṭ), بَارَامِتِر m (bārāmeter)
• Belarusian: пара́метр m (parámjetr)
• Catalan: paràmetre (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 參數／参数 (zh) (cānshù), 参数 (zh) (cānshù), 參量／参量 (zh) (cānliàng), 参量 (zh) (cānliàng)

• Czech: parametr m
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: parameeter
• Finnish: parametri (fi)
• French: paramètre (fr)
• German: Parameter (de) m
• Greek: παράμετρος (el) f (parámetros)
• Italian: parametro (it) m
• Japanese: 媒介変数 (ja) (ばいかいへんすう, baikai hensū), パラメーター (paramētā)
• Khmer: ប៉ារ៉ាម៉ែត្រ (paramaet), បរាមាត្រ (paramiet)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 파라미터 (paramiteo), 매개변수 (maegaebyeonsu)
• Maori: tau tawhā, tawhā
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: parameter m

  Nynorsk: parameter m

• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: parâmetro (pt) m
• Romanian: parametru (ro)
• Russian: пара́метр (ru) m (parámetr)
• Spanish: parámetro (es)
• Swedish: parameter (sv) c
• Tagalog: sadyansukat
• Turkish: parametre (tr)
• Ukrainian: пара́метр m (parámetr)
• Welsh: paramedr m

name in a function or subroutine definition

• Arabic: مَعْلَم (ar) m (maʕlam), وَسِيط m (wasīṭ), بَارَامِتِر m (bārāmeter)
• Belarusian: пара́метр m (parámjetr)
• Catalan: paràmetre (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 參數／参数 (zh) (cānshù), 参数 (zh) (cānshù)

• Czech: parametr m
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: parameeter
• Finnish: parametri (fi)
• French: paramètre (fr) m
• German: Parameter (de) m
• Greek: παράμετρος (el) f (parámetros)
• Italian: parametro (it) m
• Japanese: 仮引数 (かりひきすう, karihikisū), 引数 (ja) (ひきすう, hikisū, いんすう, insū), パラメーター (paramētā)
• Khmer: បរាមាត្រ (paramiet)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 파라미터 (paramiteo)
• Maori: tawhā
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: parameter m

  Nynorsk: parameter m

• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: parâmetro (pt) m
• Romanian: parametru (ro)
• Russian: пара́метр (ru) m (parámetr)
• Spanish: parámetro (es) m
• Swedish: parameter (sv) c
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: пара́метр m (parámetr)
• Vietnamese: tham số (vi), thông số (vi)
• Welsh: paramedr

See also

• variable

Further reading

• “parameter”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “parameter”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin parameter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /paːˈraːmətər/, /ˈpaːraːˌmeːtər/, /paːˈraːˌmeːtər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pa‧ra‧me‧ter

Noun

parameter m (plural parameters, diminutive parametertje n)

1. a parameter

Derived terms

• parametervoorstelling
• parametrisch

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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.

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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.

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Swedish

Noun

parameter c

1. a parameter

Declension

Declension of parameter

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	parameter	parameters
	definite	parametern	parameterns
plural	indefinite	parametrar	parametrars
	definite	parametrarna	parametrarnas