Appendix H — Glossary of Programming Jargon

“Jargon” means words which have a very specific meaning within a given discipline. All disciplines have their own jargon, sometimes called slang. These words can be repurposed real words like script or can be made up like truthiness.

A very useful resource is available here

The following table attempts to collect and explain the most common jargon used in Python and programming in general.

Table H.1: A list of jargon or slang words used in computer programming and what they mean
Word Meaning
script A file containing a set of instructions which should be run in order. For
instance we could use F5 in Spyder to run the whole thing. This is
usually placed in a .py file.
code Another word for the written program. The acting of programming is
sometimes called coding.
linter A linter is a program which analyzes the formatting of code, like
indentation and spacing, and reports errors.
library A collection of functions offered together under an overarching namespace.
The math library from the standard library. Libraries are sometimes
calledpackages.
package A collection of functions offered together under an overarching namespace.
The math library from the standard library. Libraries are sometimes
called libraries.
module The functions contained within a given library or package are often
categorized under different sub-headings, like json.codecs, which contains
a suite of functions. We would say that the json library (or package)
has a codecs module.
terminal
console
command prompt
shell