Parameter's error messages say argument instead of parameter

Bug report

Bug description:

Setting the same name parameters gets the error message saying duplicate argument as shown below:

def func(param, param):
    pass

SyntaxError: duplicate argument 'param' in function definition

Setting * after all the parameters gets the error message saying at least one argument as shown below:

def func(param1, param2, *):
    pass

SyntaxError: named arguments must follow bare *

So, argument should be replaced with parameter as shown below:

SyntaxError: duplicate parameter 'param' in function definition

SyntaxError: named parameters must follow bare *

*You can also see this issue.

CPython versions tested on:

3.12

Operating systems tested on:

Linux

Linked PRs

gh-133379: Correct usage of arguments in error messages #133382

Formally speaking, here we indeed need to use "parameter" and not "argument". However, we only change error messages in the latest version to reduce breakage possibilities (thus, I don't think we'll backport this)

gh-133379: Fix misuse of the term "arguments" in error messages (GH-1…

@hyperkai

Thank you for your report, @hyperkai. It's amazing how long we ignored this mistake.

Thank you for your PR, @StanFromIreland.

There are other error messages using argument instead of parameter as shown below:

def func(*args1, *args2): pass
# SyntaxError: * argument may appear only once

def func(**kwargs, *args): pass
# SyntaxError: arguments cannot follow var-keyword argument

def func(*args=["John"]): pass
# SyntaxError: var-positional argument cannot have default value

def func(**kwargs={"name":"John"}): pass
# SyntaxError: var-keyword argument cannot have default value

You need to pull the latest commits and build again.

pythongh-133379: Fix misuse of the term "arguments" in error messages (…

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Parameter's error messages say `argument` instead of `parameter` #133379

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Parameter's error messages say argument instead of parameter #133379

Description

Bug report

Bug description:

CPython versions tested on:

Operating systems tested on:

Linked PRs

Activity

picnixz commented on May 4, 2025

serhiy-storchaka commented on May 10, 2025

hyperkai commented on May 11, 2025

StanFromIreland commented on May 11, 2025

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Parameter's error messages say `argument` instead of `parameter` #133379