argument vs reply

argument

noun
  • A verbal dispute; a quarrel. 

  • An abstract or summary of the content of a literary work such as a book, a poem or a major section such as a chapter, included in the work before the content itself; (figuratively) the contents themselves. 

  • Any dispute, altercation, or collision. 

  • The independent variable of a function. 

  • A value, or a reference to a value, passed to a function. 

  • A parameter at a function call; an actual parameter, as opposed to a formal parameter. 

  • Any of the phrases that bears a syntactic connection to the verb of a clause. 

  • A fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason. 

  • A process of reasoning; argumentation. 

  • The phase of a complex number. 

  • A quantity on which the calculation of another quantity depends. 

  • 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. 

reply

noun
  • A written or spoken response; part of a conversation. 

  • Something given in reply. 

  • A counterattack. 

  • A document written by a party specifically replying to a responsive declaration and in some cases an answer. 

  • The answer of a figure. 

verb
  • To give a written or spoken response, especially to a question, request, accusation or criticism; to answer. 

  • To act or gesture in response. 

  • To repeat something back; to echo. 

How often have the words argument and reply occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )