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Riff vs Argument - What's the difference?

riff | argument |

As nouns the difference between riff and argument

is that riff is a repeated instrumental melody line in a song while argument is a fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason.

As a verb riff

is to improvise in the performance or practice of an art, especially by expanding on or making novel use of traditional themes.

riff

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A repeated instrumental melody line in a song.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2009 , date=November 27 , author= , title=Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has 'best guitar riff' , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has been named the greatest guitar riff of all time, 41 years after it was recorded, in a poll by website Music Radar.}}
  • A clever or witty remark.
  • A variation on something.
  • *2012 , The Economist, London Skyline: Tower Power
  • Both the Orbit and the Pinnacle are riffs on an idea sketched out in 1917 by Vladimir Tatlin for a monument to international communism.
  • A spoof
  • * 26 June 2014 , A.A Dowd, AV Club Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler spoof rom-com clichés in They Came Together [http://www.avclub.com/review/paul-rudd-and-amy-poehler-spoof-rom-com-cliches-th-206220]
  • The creative team has experience with spoofing: Both Rudd and Poehler had parts in Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer, a hysterically irreverent riff on ’80s summer-camp comedies.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To improvise in the performance or practice of an art, especially by expanding on or making novel use of traditional themes.
  • See also

    * riff-raff * riffraff

    argument

    English

    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 .

    Usage notes

    * (formal parameter in a function definition) Some authors regard use of "argument" to mean "formal parameter" to be imprecise, preferring that argument'' refers only to the value that is used to instantiate the ''parameter'' at runtime, while ''parameter refers only to the name in the function definition that will be instantiated.

    Synonyms

    * (programming value) actual argument * See also * See also

    Meronyms

    * (logic) proposition, premise, conclusion

    Derived terms

    * ad hominem argument * argumentable * argumental * argumentation * argumentative * argumentatively * argumentativeness * argument form * argument from design * argumentive * argumentize * argumentless * cosmological argument * etymological argument * ontological argument * teleological argument