Argument

Research

A claim supported by reasons and evidence, addressing likely counterarguments.

Sources

1. Merriam-Webster — argument merriam-webster.com accessed 23 September 2026

Merriam-Webster separates the two senses students confuse: “an angry quarrel or disagreement”, and — the academic one — “a coherent series of reasons, statements, or facts intended to support or establish a point of view”. From Latin argūmentum, from arguere, to show or demonstrate; first recorded in the fourteenth century. Coherent series is the requirement: a list of opinions is not an argument, and neither is a disagreement.

Merriam-Webster is cited as the dictionary of record: where an entry defines a word rather than a position, a dictionary is the primary source for it. The research usage above is this lexicon’s own.

Related terms

• Abbreviation
• Abstract
• Abstraction
• Academic Database
• Analysis
• Annotation

Also defined as

A structured set of premises offered in support of a conclusion — distinguished from opinion by the presence of reasons and evidence.

From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).