Parameter

Quick meaning: Parameter is a noun meaning (sciences) A variable that describes a property or characteristic of some system (material, object, event, etc.) or some aspect thereof.

Meaning

(sciences) A variable that describes a property or characteristic of some system (material, object, event, etc.) or some aspect thereof.

More Meanings

1. (programming) An input variable of a function definition, that gets an actual value (argument) at execution time.
2. (programming, loosely) An actual value given to such a formal parameter.
3. A characteristic or feature that distinguishes something from others.
4. (commutative algebra) Clipping of uniformizing parameter.
5. (crystallography) The ratio of the three crystallographic axes which determines the position of any plane.
6. A value kept constant during an experiment, equation, calculation, or similar, but varied over other versions of the experiment, equation, calculation, etc.
7. (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.

Example Sentences

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

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

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

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.

Word Forms

• parameters

Synonyms for parameter

Depending on context, synonyms include argument, attribute, characteristic, designation, distinction, distinctiveness.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include param, endpoint, perimeter, metric, benchmark, criterion.

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