Argument

How to spell argument

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce argument

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does argument mean?

1. nounA heated disagreement or verbal dispute between people.
2. nounA reason or set of reasons put forward to support a position or conclusion.

Argument in a sentence

• The couple had a loud argument about money at the dinner table.

• The lawyer presented a convincing argument for her client's innocence.

• A minor argument over the bill nearly ruined the evening.

• The essay builds its central argument across three carefully structured paragraphs.

Where does argument come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin argumentum, meaning 'evidence, proof, or a means of making something clear', which was built on the verb arguere, 'to make clear, to demonstrate, or to assert'. That verb carried the sense of brightening or sharpening a point until it was plain to see, and the related Latin adjective argentum for silver shares the same bright, shining root. English took the word in the 1300s through Old French argument, at first meaning a piece of reasoning offered as proof rather than a quarrel; the sense of an angry dispute grew up alongside it over the following centuries. The notorious spelling trap is that English keeps the silent 'e' in 'argue' but drops it in 'argument', so the word is never spelled with an 'e' after the 'u'. Remembering that the noun was clipped down from the Latin form, with no extra vowel, is the surest way to avoid writing the common error 'arguement'.

How the word is built

• argu- (from arguere: to make clear, prove)
• -ment (noun-forming suffix)