Associations to the word «Parameter»

Wiktionary

PARAMETER, noun. (mathematics) (physics) A variable kept constant during an experiment, calculation or similar.
PARAMETER, noun. (programming) An input variable of a procedure definition, that gets an actual value (argument) at execution time (formal parameter).
PARAMETER, noun. (programming) An actual value given to such a formal parameter (argument or actual parameter).
PARAMETER, noun. A characteristic or feature that distinguishes something from others.
PARAMETER, noun. (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.
PARAMETER, noun. (crystallography) The ratio of the three crystallographic axes which determines the position of any plane.
PARAMETER, noun. (crystallography) The fundamental axial ratio for a given species.

Dictionary definition

PARAMETER, noun. A constant in the equation of a curve that can be varied to yield a family of similar curves.
PARAMETER, noun. Any factor that defines a system and determines (or limits) its performance.
PARAMETER, noun. (computer science) a reference or value that is passed to a function, procedure, subroutine, command, or program.
PARAMETER, noun. A quantity (such as the mean or variance) that characterizes a statistical population and that can be estimated by calculations from sample data.

Wise words

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.
Noam Chomsky