Noun

(en noun)

A confrontation; a dare.

# An instigation or antagonization intended to convince a person to perform an action they otherwise would not.

#*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-11-30, volume=409, issue=8864, magazine=(The Economist), author=Paul Davis

, title= Letters: Say it as simply as possible , passage=Congratulations on managing to use the phrase “preponderant criterion” in a chart (“ On your marks”, November 9th). Was this the work of a kakorrhaphiophobic journalist set a challenge by his colleagues, or simply an example of glossolalia?}}

# A bid to overcome something.

#* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 5, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport

, title= Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool , passage=For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places.}}

# (sports) An attempt to take possession; a tackle

#* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Saj Chowdhury, work=BBC Sport

, title= Wolverhampton 1-2 Newcastle , passage=Argentine midfielder Jonas Gutierrez added a superb second when he surged past four challenges to fire in low.}}

# A summons to fight a duel; also, the letter or message conveying the summons.

# The act of a sentry in halting a person and demanding the countersign, or (by extension) the action of a computer system demanding a password, etc.

A difficult task, especially one that the person making the attempt finds more enjoyable because of that difficulty.

(label) A procedure or action.

# (legal, rare) A judge's interest in the result of the case for which he or she should not be allowed to sit the case, e.g. a conflict of interest.

# The act of appealing a ruling or decision of a court of administrative agency.

# The act of seeking to remove a judge, arbitrator or other judicial or semi-judicial figure for reasons of alleged bias or incapacity.

# (label) An exception to a person as not legally qualified to vote. The challenge must be made when the ballot is offered.

(label) The opening and crying of hounds at first finding the scent of their game.

Noun

(en noun)

A fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason.

* Ray

There is no more palpable and convincing argument of the existence of a Deity.

A verbal dispute; a quarrel.

A process of reasoning.

* John Locke

The argument is not about things, but names.

(philosophy, logic) A series of propositions organized so that the final proposition is a conclusion which is intended to follow logically from the preceding propositions, which function as premises.

*

(mathematics) The independent variable of a function.

(programming) A value, or reference to a value, passed to a function.

* {{quote-web, date = 2011-07-20

, author = Edwin Mares , title = Propositional Functions , site = The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , url = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2011/entries/propositional-function , accessdate = 2012-07-15 }}

In ‘The Critic of Arguments’ (1892), Peirce adopts a notion that is even closer to that of a propositional function. There he develops the concept of the ‘rhema’. He says the rhema is like a relative term, but it is not a term. It contains a copula, that is, when joined to the correct number of arguments it produces an assertion. For example, ‘__ is bought by __ from __ for __’ is a four-place rhema. Applying it to four objects a'', ''b'', ''c'', and ''d'' produces the assertion that ''a'' is bought by ''b'' from ''c'' for ''d (ibid. 420).

Parameters are like labeled fillable blanks used to define a function whereas arguments are passed to a function when calling it, filling in those blanks.

(programming) A parameter in a function definition; an actual parameter, as opposed to a formal parameter.

(linguistics) Any of the phrases that bears a syntactic connection to the verb of a clause.

*

In numerous works over the past two decades, beginning with the pioneering work of Gruber (1965), Fillmore (1968a), and Jackendoff (1972), it has been argued that each Argument' (i.e. Subject or Complement) of a Predicate bears a particular ''thematic role'' (alias ''theta-role'', or ''θ-role'' to its Predicate), and that the set of ''thematic functions'' which ' Arguments can fulfil are drawn from a highly restricted, finite, universal set.

(astronomy) The quantity on which another quantity in a table depends.

The altitude is the argument of the refraction.

The subject matter of a discourse, writing, or artistic representation; theme or topic; also, an abstract or summary, as of the contents of a book, chapter, poem.

* Shakespeare

You and love are still my argument .

* Jeffrey

the abstract or argument of the piece

* Milton

[shields] with boastful argument portrayed

Matter for question; business in hand.

* Shakespeare

Sheathed their swords for lack of argument .