In programming, the terms “parameter” and “argument” are often used interchangeably, but they have slightly different meanings.

A “parameter” is a variable defined in the function declaration. It’s a way of telling the function what inputs it should expect. For example, consider the following function:

def add_numbers(a, b):
    return a + b

Here, a and b are the parameters of the function add_numbers(). They tell the function to expect two inputs, which will be used in the calculation inside the function body.

An “argument” is the actual value that is passed to the function when it’s called. In other words, it’s the value that’s assigned to the parameter. For example, when we call the add_numbers() function with the arguments 2 and 3:

result = add_numbers(2, 3)

The values 2 and 3 are the arguments that are passed to the add_numbers() function. Inside the function, a will be assigned the value 2 and b will be assigned the value 3. The function will then return the sum of a and b, which in this case is 5.

In summary, parameters are defined in the function declaration, while arguments are the values that are passed to the function when it’s called. They work together to allow functions to accept inputs and perform operations based on those inputs.