Python

  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Python

Definition: Python

Python

Noun

1. Large Old World boas.

2. A soothsaying spirit or a person who is possessed by such a spirit.

3. (Greek mythology) dragon killed by Apollo at Delphi.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "python" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)

Etymology: Python \Py"thon\, noun. [New Latin expression, from the Latin expression Python the serpent slain near Delphi by Apollo, Greek]. (references)

 

Specialty Definition: Python

DomainDefinition

Computing

Python /pi:'thon/ In the words of its author, "the other scripting language" (other than Perl, that is). Python's design is notably clean, elegant, and well thought through; it tends to attract the sort of programmers who find Perl grubby and exiguous. Python's relationship with Perl is rather like the BSD community's relationship to Linux - it's the smaller party in a (usually friendly) rivalry, but the average quality of its developers is generally conceded to be rather higher than in the larger community it competes with. There's a Python resource page at `http://www.python.org'. See also Guido. = Q =. Source: Jargon File.

Literature

Python The monster serpent hatched from the mud of Deucalion's deluge, and slain near Delphi by Apollo. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Monty Python's Flying Circus

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Monty Python's Flying Circus was a comedy television series that originally aired in Britain from 1969 until 1974. The show involved neither snakes nor aviation (except by Harold the sheep) and its comedy owed more to surrealism than to circus. Furthermore, none of the performers or characters appearing was called Monty. It became a hit series in Britain and soon after was syndicated to the United States, where it attracted a huge cult following.

The show was written by and starred the members of the Monty Python comedy troupe, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, as well as Carol Cleveland and other bit players.

The show, like its precursors that featured several budding Pythons, Do Not Adjust Your Set and At Last the 1948 Show, was characterized by numerous, usually unrelated, skits that came and went at a frenetic pace. The skits ranged from the completely silly and nonsensical, to the bitingly satirical (usually the latter). The show often targeted the idiosyncracies of British life (especially professionals), and was at times politically charged. The members of Monty Python were highly educated (Oxford and Cambridge graduates), and their comedy was often pointedly intellectual with numerous references to philosophers and literary figures. They frequently appeared in women's clothes. Skits were often punctuated with Terry Gilliam's graphics and animations, which tended to be quite bizarre. Cleese had developed his harsh establishment characters in the 1962 Cambridge Footlights Revue, the Frost Report and on the humourous BBC radio programme I'm Sorry, I'll Read that Again.

Although the show was made by the BBC, the BBC was widely against the show, and tried to censor parts of it, most noticably the word 'masturbation' in the Proust sketch.

The show aged very well and remains widely popular. Because of its frequent re-broadcasts, many of its skits have become ingrained into English-speaking culture, and are commonly referenced in other shows, movies, etc.

The first episode was recorded September 7, 1969, and the first broadcast was October 5, 1969. The final episode was recorded November 16, 1974, and the final original broadcast was on December 5, 1974. There were a total of 45 episodes. No new episodes were produced from the October, 1970, until December, 1971, and no original broadcasts occurred from December, 1970 through October 1972. John Cleese left the Monty Python group after the third season, and so did not appear in the final six episodes (ie. season four) of the series. He did, however, get writing credits in season four where applicable. Neil Innes and Douglas Adams are notable as the only two non-Pythons to get writing credits in the show - both in the same episode late in season four. Innes frequently appeared in the Pythons' stage shows and can also be seen in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Participants in or followers of Monty Python's Flying Circus are sometimes known as Pythonites (or Pythonists, a term used in the Not the Nine O'Clock News 'General Synod's Life of Christ/Life of Monty Python' Sketch), although the performers are more generally known as "the Pythons". The adjective "Pythonesque" is used to describe speeches, scenes or events similar to situations or animated sequences shown in this British comedy programme.

The Python programming language is named after the television series. The Python software developers adopt a common practice of using Monty Python references in example code, tutorials and reference materials.

Skits

Well-known skits include: The theme tune was John Philip Sousa's Liberty Bell March.

Films

The films in order were:
And Now for Something Completely Different
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Life of Brian
The Meaning of Life

Books

The Books created to tie-in with the Series/Films were:
Monty Python's Big Red Book
Monty Python's Brand New Bok (Later reprinted as Monty Python's Papperbok)
The Life of Brian of Nazareth/Montypythonscrapbook
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
The Complete Works of Shakespeare and Monty Python Vol. 1: Monty Python (a repackaging of both the Big Red Book and the Brand New Bok)

Records

The Records released included:
Monty Python's Flying Circus (1970)
Another Monty Python Record (1971)
Monty Python's Previous Record (1972)
The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief (1973)
Monty Python Live at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (1974)
The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
The Worst of Monty Python (1976)
Monty Python Live at City Center (1976)
The Monty Python Instant Record Collection (UK Version - 1977)
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
Monty Python examines The Life of Brian (1979)
Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album (1980)
Monty Python's Meaning of Life (1983)
Monty Python's The Final Ripoff (1988)
Monty Python Sings (1989)

Episodes

Series 1

Series 2 Series 3 Series 4 Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus: Two 45-minutes specials made by WDR for West German television. These were shot entirely on film, mainly on location in Bavaria and in the German language, although the second episode was originally recorded in English and then dubbed into German. Some of the material was reworked from At Last the 1948 Show. Footage from these specials was used to fill in between live stage performances. At one point the team considered editing the two shows together, dubbing them completely into English and releasing them as a 90-minute film, but it never came about.

Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl: A video record of the team's Hollywood Bowl concerts in 1978, filmed before a hysterical audience. Also incorporates some filmed inserts from the German specials.

External links

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Python

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Python."

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Python (mythology)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

In Greek mythology, Python was a dragon that lived at Delphi. It was a child of Gaia and the mud that was left over after the flood of Deucalion ended the Golden Age. Apollo killed it and made its former home an oracle, one of the most famous in Greece.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Python (mythology)."

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Python programming language

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Python is an interpreted, interactive programming language created by Guido van Rossum, originally as a scripting language for Amoeba OS capable of making system calls. Python is often compared to Tcl, Perl, Scheme, Java and Ruby. Python is currently (November 2003) at version 2.3.

Philosophy

Python is a multi-paradigm language, like Perl and unlike Smalltalk or Haskell. This means that, rather than forcing coders to adopt one particular style of coding, it permits several. Object orientation, structured programming, functional programming, and more recently, design by contract are all supported. Python is dynamically type-checked and uses garbage collection for memory management. The term "agile programming language" has recently come into vogue, applied mostly to Python.

Popularized explicitly in contrast to Perl, Python has many similarities to that language. However, Python's designers reject Perl's exuberant syntax in favor of a more spare, less cluttered one. As with Perl, Python's developers expressly promote a particular "culture" or ideology based on what they want the language to be, favoring language forms they see as "beautiful", "explicit" and "simple". For the most part, Perl and Python users differ in their interpretation of these terms and how they are best implemented.

Another important goal of the Python developers is to make using Python fun. This is reflected in the origin of the name (after the television series Monty Python's Flying Circus), in the common practice of using Monty Python references in example code, and a generally not over-serious viewpoint adopted in many Python tutorials and reference materials.

Despite these populist goals, and although—again as with Perl—Python is sometimes classed as a "scripting language", it has been used to develop many large software projects such as the Zope application server and the Mnet file sharing system. It is also extensively used in Google. Although Python does use scripts, proponents prefer to call it an interpreted language, on the grounds that "scripting language" tends to imply things like shell scripts or JavaScript: much simpler and, for most purposes, less capable than "real" programming languages such as Python.

Though the designer of Python is somewhat hostile to functional programming and the Lisp tradition, there are significant parallels between the philosophy of Python and that of minimalist Lisp-family languages such as Scheme. Many past Lisp programmers have found Python appealing for this reason.

Data types and structures

Python has a broad range of basic data types. Alongside conventional integer and floating point arithmetic, it transparently supports arbitrarily large integers and complex numbers.

It supports the usual panoply of string operations, with one exception: strings in Python are immutable objects, so any string operation that might elsewhere alter a string (such as a substitution of characters) will in Python instead return a new string.

Python values, not variables, carry type—meaning that Python is a dynamically typed language, like Lisp and unlike Java or C. All values are passed by reference.

Among dynamically typed languages, Python is moderately type-checked. It is neither as loose as Perl nor as strict as Caml. Implicit conversion is defined for numeric types, so one may validly multiply a complex number by a long integer (for instance) without explicit casting. However, there is no implicit conversion between (e.g.) numbers and strings; unlike in Perl, a number is an invalid argument to a string operation.

Collection types

Python also has several collection types, including lists, tuples, and dictionaries. Lists, tuples, and strings are sequences and share most of their methods in common: one can iterate over the characters of a string as easily as the elements of a list. Lists are extensible arrays, whereas tuples are of fixed length and immutable.

The purpose for all this immutability comes in with dictionaries, a type known elsewhere as hashes, associative arrays, or maps. To preserve consistency under pass-by-reference, the keys of a dictionary must be of immutable type. Dictionary values, on the other hand, may be of any type.

Object system

The Python type system is well integrated with the class system. Although the built-in data types are not precisely classes, a class can inherit from a type. Thus it is possible to extend strings or dictionaries ... or even integers, should you care to do such a thing. Python also supports multiple inheritance.

The language supports extensive introspection of types and classes. Types can be read and compared—indeed, as in Smalltalk, types are a type. The attributes of an object can be extracted as a dictionary.

Operators can be overloaded in Python by defining special member functions—for instance, defining __add__ on a class permits one to use the + operator on members of that class. (Compare C++'s operator+ and similar method names.)

Syntax

Python was designed to be highly readable. It has a simple visual layout, uses English keywords frequently where other languages use punctuation, and has notably fewer syntactic constructions than many structured languages such as C, Perl, or Pascal.

For instance, Python has only two structured loop forms—for, which loops over elements of a list or iterator (like Perl foreach); and while, which loops as long as a boolean expression is true. It thus lacks C-style complex for, a do...while, and Perl's until, though of course equivalents can be expressed. Likewise, it has only if...elif...else for branching—no switch or labeled goto.

Syntactical significance of whitespace

One unusual aspect of Python's syntax is the method used to delimit program blocks. Sometimes termed "the whitespace thing", it is one aspect of Python syntax that many programmers otherwise unfamiliar with Python have heard of, since it is unique among currently widespread languages.

In languages that use the block structure ultimately derived from Algol—including Pascal, C, Perl, and many others—blocks of code are set off with braces ({ }) or keywords such as Pascal's begin and end. In all these languages, however, programmers conventionally indent the code within a block, to set it off visually from the surrounding code.

Python, instead, borrows a feature from the lesser-known language Occam—instead of punctuation or keywords, it uses this indentation itself to indicate the run of a block. A brief example will make this clear. Here are C and Python recursive functions which do the same thing—computing the factorial of an integer:

Factorial function in C: 

int factorial(int x) {      
    if (x == 0) {                      
        return(1);                   
    } else {
        return(x * factorial(x-1));
    }
}
Factorial function in Python: 
def factorial(x):
    if x == 0:
        return 1
    else:
        return x * factorial(x-1)
Some programmers used to Algol-style languages, in which whitespace is semantically empty, at first find this confusing or even offensive. A few have drawn unflattering comparison to the column-oriented style used on punched-card Fortran systems. When Algol was new, it was a major development to have "free-form" languages in which only symbols mattered and not their position on the line.

To Python programmers, however, "the whitespace thing" is simply an extrapolation of a convention that programmers in Algol-style languages already follow anyway. They also point out that the free-form syntax has the disadvantage that, since indentation is ignored, good indentation cannot be enforced. Thus, incorrectly indented code may be misleading, since a human reader and a compiler will interpret it differently.

Functional programming

As mentioned above, another strength of Python is the availability of functional syntax elements. As may be expected, these make working with lists and other collections much more straightforward. One such construction is the list comprehension, introduced from the functional language Haskell, as seen here in calculating the first five powers of two:

numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
powers_of_two = [ 2 ** n for n in numbers ]
Because Python permits functions as arguments, it is also possible to express more subtle functional constructs, such as the continuation.

Lambda

Python's lambda keyword may misdirect some functional-programming fans. Python lambda blocks may contain only expressions, not statements. Thus, they are not the most general way to return a function for use in higher-order functions. Instead, the usual practice is to define and return a function using a locally-scoped name, as in the following example of a simple curried function:

def add_and_print_maker(x):
    def temp(y):
        print "%d + %d = %d" % (x, y, x+y)
    return temp
The function can also be implemented with nested lambdas, as would be done in Scheme. To do this requires working around the Python lambda's limitation, by defining a function to encapsulate the print statement:

def print_func(obj):
   print obj

add_and_print_maker = \\
   lambda(x): lambda(y): \\
      print_func("%d + %d = %d" % (x, y, x+y))
The resulting add_and_print_maker functions perform identically: given a number x they return a function which, when given a number y, will print a sentence of arithmetic. Although the first style may be more common, the second can be more clear to programmers with a functional-programming background.

Python's unique style for the binary boolean operators and and or create another unique functional feature. Using those two operators, any type of control flow can be implemented within lambda expressions [1]. They are usually used for simpler purposes, however. See the heading logical operators below.

Generators

Introduced in Python 2.2 as optional feature and finalized in version 2.3, generators are Python's mechanism for lazy evaluation of a function that would otherwise return a long or computationally intensive list. The uses of generators are similar to the uses of Scheme streams.

One example from the python.org website:

def generate_ints(N):
   for i in range(N):
       yield i
You can now use the generator generate_ints:

for i in generate_ints(N):
   print i
Note that the variable N should be defined before executing the second piece of code.

The definition of a generator appears identical to that of a function, except the keyword yield is used in place of return. However, a generator is an object with persistent state, which can repeatedly enter and leave the same dynamic extent. A generator call can then be used in place of a list, or other structure whose elements will be iterated over. Whenever the for-loop in the example requires the next item, the generator is called, and yields the next item.

Logical operators

In Python, the expressions "", 0, None, [], {}, etc. are false, and everything else is true. When using binary boolean operators in Python, the syntax is to have the operator be in between the two statements in question. So to see if the statements xx">

5 and 3 are true, one would write "x

5 and 3". To evaluate this, the interpreter would first check if x

5 returned true. If it didn't, it would return 0, but since it did, it goes on to the next statement. Next, it checks if 3 is true. Since 3 is true, 3 is returned. If three weren't true, 0 would be returned. If the order of all of this were reversed to 3 and x

5, 1 would be returned because that's what x==5 evaluates to (because 1 is the default truth value). The or function works similarly. To find out if "2/3 or 5" is true, the interperater first finds the truth value of 2/3. Since 2/3 evaluates to 0, as described above, it would return false. If it had returned true, then its value would be returned. Next, the interpreter looks at the second expression. Since, in this case, it returns true, 5 would be returned. It is common in Python to write expressions such as print p or q to take advantage of this feature.

Object-oriented programming

Python has inheritance, including multiple inheritance. It has limited support for private variables using name mangling. See the "Classes" section of the tutorial for details. Many Python users don't feel the need for private variables, though. The slogan "We're all consenting adults here" is used to describe this attitude. Some consider information hiding to be unpythonic, in that it suggests that the class in question contains unaesthetic or ill-planned internals.

From the tutorial: As is true for modules, classes in Python do not put an absolute barrier between definition and user, but rather rely on the politeness of the user not to "break into the definition."

OOP doctrines such as the use of accessor methods to read data members are not enforced in Python. Just as Python offers functional-programming constructs but does not attempt to demand referential transparency (in contrast with Haskell), it offers (and extensively uses!) its object system but does not demand OOP behavior (in contrast with Java or Smalltalk).

In version 2.2 of Python, "new-style" classes were introduced. With new-style classes, objects and types were unified, allowing the subclassing of types. Even new types entirely can be defined, complete with custom behavior for infix operators. This allows for many radical things to be done syntactically within Python, such as the ability to use C++-style input and output. A new multiple inheritance model was adopted with new-style classes, making a much more logical order of inheritance, adopted from Common Lisp. The new methods and classes property, __getattribute__ and __setattribute__ were also defined to assist with the handling of variables.

Exception handling

Python supports (and extensively uses) exception handling as a means of testing for error conditions. Indeed, it is even possible to trap the exception caused by a syntax error!

Exceptions permit more concise and reliable error checking than many other ways of reporting erroneous or exceptional events. Exceptions are thread-safe; they tend not to clutter up code in the way that testing for returned error codes does in C; and they can easily propagate up the calling stack when an error must be reported to a higher level of the program.

Python style calls for the use of exceptions whenever an error condition might arise. Indeed, rather than testing for access to a file or resource before actually using it, it is conventional in Python to just go ahead and try to use it, catching the exception if access is rejected.

Standard library

Python has a large standard library, which makes it well suited to many tasks. This comes from a so-called "batteries included" philosophy for python modules. The modules of the standard library can be augmented with custom modules written in either C or Python. The standard library is particularly well tailored to writing Internet-facing applications, with a large number of standard formats and protocols (such as MIME and HTTP) supported. Modules for creating graphical user interfaces, connecting to relational databases, and manipulating regular expressions are also included.

The standard library is one of Python's greatest strengths. The bulk of it is cross-platform compatible, meaning that even heavily leveraged Python programs can often run on Unix, Windows, Macintosh, and other platforms without change.

It is currently being debated whether or not third-party but open source Python modules such as wxPython or NumPy should be included in the standard library, in accordance with the batteries included philosophy.

Other features

Like Lisp, and unlike Perl, the Python interpreter also supports an interactive mode in which expressions can be entered from the terminal and results seen immediately. This is a boon for those learning the language and experienced developers alike: snippets of code can be tested in interactive mode before integrating them into a program proper.

Python also includes a unit testing framework for creating exhaustive test suites. While static-typing aficionados see this as a replacement for a static type-checking system, Python programmers largely do not share this view.

Neologisms

A few neologisms have come into common use within the Python community. One of the most common is "pythonic", which can have a wide range of meanings related to program style. To say that a piece of code is pythonic is to say that it uses Python idioms well; that it is natural or shows fluency in the language. Likewise, to say of an interface or language feature that it is pythonic is to say that it works well with Python idioms; that its use meshes well with the rest of the language.

In contrast, a mark of unpythonic code is that it attempts to "write C++ (or Lisp, or Perl) code in Python"—that is, provides a rough transcription rather than an idiomatic translation of forms from another language.

The prefix Py- can be used to show that something is related to Python, much as a prefixed J- denotes Java. Examples of the use of this prefix in names of Python applications or libraries include PyGame, a binding of SDL to Python, PyUI, a GUI encoded entirely in Python, and PyAlaMode, an IDE for Python created by Orbtech, a company specializing in Python.

Platforms

Although Python was originally programmed for the Amoeba platform, that version is "dead" (ie. it hasn't been updated in a while). The three most popular (and therefore best maintained) platforms Python runs on are Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Java. The Java version is a completely seperate implementation which supports compilation. The Mac port is maintained by an external project called MacPython, and was included in Mac OS 10.3 "Panther". Other supported platforms include:

Unfortunately, most of the third-party libraries for Python (and even some first-party ones) are only available on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Miscellany

External Links

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Pythonidae

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Pythonidae is a family of constricting snakes, sometimes classified as an subfamily of the boas, Boidae. Pythons are found in Australasia, Southeast Asia, India, and Africa. They range in size between 0.5 and 10 m. Some show vivid patterns on their scales while others are a nondescript brown.

Pythonidae consists of seven (I think) genera, including:

Reproduction

Pythons lay eggs which they arrange in a pile. They coil around the pile until all eggs have hatched. Since pythons cannot regulate their internal body temperature, they cannot incubate their eggs per se; instead, they raise the temperature of their eggs by small movements of their body -- essentially, they "shiver". This is one of only a few documented cases of parental behaviour in snakes.

Predatory characteristics and behaviour

Most pythons have heat-sensing organs in their lips. These enable them to detect objects that are hotter than the surrounding environment. Pythons that do not have heat-sensing organs identify their prey by smell. Pythons are ambush predators: they typically stay in a camouflaged position and then suddenly strike at passing prey. They then grasp the prey in their teeth, and kill by constriction. Death is usually a result of suffocation or heart failure rather than crushing. Pythons will not usually attack humans unless startled or provoked.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Pythonidae."

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Synonyms within Context: Python

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Oracle

Noun: oracle; prophet, prophesier, seer, soothsayer, augur, fortune teller, crystal gazer, witch, geomancer, aruspex; aruspice, haruspice; haruspex; astrologer, star gazer; Sibyl; Python, Pythoness; Pythia; Pythian oracle, Delphian oracle; Monitor, Sphinx, Tiresias, Cassandra, Sibylline leaves; Zadkiel, Old Moore; sorcerer; interpreter.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Python

English words defined with "python": carpet snake ♦ Indian python ♦ Morelia spilotes variegatus ♦ Pythian games, Pythius, Python molurus, Python sebae, Python variegatus ♦ rock python, rock snake. (references)
Specialty definitions using "python": CMU Common Lisp ♦ empeg, Eric Conspiracy ♦ Guido, gumby ♦ languages of choice ♦ object-oriented programming. (references)
Etymologies containing "python": Pythonomorpha. (references)
Non-English Usage: "Python" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

Dutch (Python), French (python), German (python).

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Modern Usage: Python

DomainUsage

Clever

You are an engineer if you can quote scenes from any Monty Python movie. (references; author: unknown)

Movie/TV Titles

In the Coils of the Python (1913)

It's the Monty Python Story (1993)

Pig in the Python (1992)

Life of Python (1990)

Parrot Sketch Not Included: Twenty Years of Monty Python (1989)

Song Titles

Argument (performing artist: Monty Python)

Australian Table Wines (performing artist: Monty Python)

Bookshop (performing artist: Monty Python)

Bruces (performing artist: Monty Python)

Cannabalism (performing artist: Monty Python)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Python

DomainTitle

Books

  

Theater & Movies

  • Monty Python Gift Set (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, And Now For Something Completely Different) (reference)

  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail (reference)

  • Monty Python's Parrot Sketch Not Included - 20 Years of Python (reference)

    (more DVD examples; more video examples)

  

Music

  • The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] (reference)

  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail [SOUNDTRACK] (reference)

  • The Album Of The Soundtrack Of The Trailer Of The Film Of Monty Python And The Holy Grail [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] [SOUNDTRACK] (reference)

  • Monty Python Sings (reference)

    (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

  

High Tech

  

Consumer Goods

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Python

Photos:
Python

More pictures...

Illustrations:
Python

More pictures...

Computer Images:
Python

More pictures...

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Photo Album: Python

ThumbnailDescription & Credit

Python Engine Installed in Altitude Wind Tunnel. Credit: NASA.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Digital Photo Gallery: Python
 

"Python" by Flying Dutchman
Commentary: "Diz python came from Tropicarium. Shot by me:Dutchman."

Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Python

SubjectTopicQuote

Business

Shoes produced of python, crocodile, lizard or snake leather (or imitation), as well those made in very loud and intense colors, are enjoying a great demand currently. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Python

"Python" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 84.42% of the time. "Python" is used about 77 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words		Rank in English
Noun (singular)84.42%6541,645
Noun (proper)14.29%11106,044
Noun (common)1.3%1339,140
                    Total100.00%77N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expression: Python

Expressions using "python": amethystine python ♦ genus Python ♦ indian python ♦ python molurus ♦ python regia ♦ python reticulatus ♦ python Sebae ♦ python tigris ♦ python variegatus ♦ reticulated python ♦ rock python. Additional references.

Hyphenated Usage

Beginning with "python": python-hunters, python-infested.

Ending with "python": ex-python.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Python

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day		ExpressionFrequency
per Day

monty python

1,565

albino burmese python

51

python

1,355

ball python care

50

ball python

606

python exhaust

49

monty python and the holy grail

232

monty python wav

41

burmese python

165

monty python wavs

41

command else if programming python

156

michael monty python

39

colt python

118

african rock python

36

python snake

109

ball python snake

33

reticulated python

85

python lock

32

monty python script

77

monty python song

31

monty python sound

73

python alarm

30

rock python

71

monty python picture

29

monty python quote

64

python tutorial

28

green tree python

60

eric monty python

28

ball python picture

57

carpet python

28

grail holy monty python script

55

grail holy monty python quote

27

python rule

53

python script

26

python suck

53

child python

26

monty python spam

53

python picture

26

monty python lyrics

52

royal python

25
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Python

Language Translations for "python"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

piton. (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏الأصلة ثعبان كبير, ‏ثعبان كبير غير سام. (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

питон (rock-snake). (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

蟒 (Python molurus). (various references)

   

Czech

  

krajta, hroznýš (boa, boa constrictor). (various references)

   

Danish

  

tiger-python (Indian python). (various references)

   

Dutch

  

python. (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

Pitono. (various references)

   

Faeroese

  

kyrkingarormur. (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

غیبگو (Necromancer, Seer), افعی (Adder, Asp). (various references)

   

French

  

python. (various references)

   

German

  

Pythonschlange, Python. (various references)

   

Greek 

  

πύθων. (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

פיתון. (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

óriáskígyó (constrictor). (various references)

   

Italian

  

pitoni, pitone (stud). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

錦蛇 (harlequin snake), 蠎 (anaconda, boa constrictor). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

うわばみ (anaconda, boa constrictor), にしきへび (harlequin snake). (various references)

   

Manx

  

aarnieu traastey. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

ythonpay.(various references)

   

Portuguese

  

pitões (climbing irons), pitão (ring nail), píton, espírito (esprit, genie, ghost, go, jinnee, mind, nous, poltergeist, psyche, soul, spirit, sprite, tone, wit), duende familiar. (various references)

   

Romanian

  

piton. (various references)

   

Russian 

  

питон. (various references)

   

Sepedi

  

hlware. (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

piton. (various references)

   

Shona

  

shato. (various references)

   

Spanish

  

pitón (piton, prong, spout). (various references)

   

Swazi

  

ín-hlâtfu. (various references)

   

Swedish

  

pytonorm, pyton, spåman (diviner, fortune teller, fortune-teller, predictor, prophet). (various references)

   

Thai

  

งูขนาดใหญ่. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

piton, apollon'un öldürdüğü dev yılan. (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

піфон, пітон. (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

ma (devil, dickens, leprechaun), hồn ma người bị hồn ma ám ảnh. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Python

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

Python spp.. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Python

Derivations

Words beginning with "python": pythoness, pythonesses, pythonic, pythons. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Python" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Pethor, Pichon, pieton, pithoi, Pyithu, pyth, Pythan, Pytheos, Pythios, pytho, pythos. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Python"

Words rhyming with "python" (pronounced 'Py"thon'): Anacoluthon, Antichthon, Autochthon, Ornithon. (additional references)

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Anagrams: Python

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: phyton, typhon.

Words within the letters "h-n-o-p-t-y"

-1 letter: phony.

-2 letters: hypo, phon, phot, pony, tony, toph, typo.

-3 letters: hon, hop, hot, hoy, hyp, noh, not, nth, opt, pht, poh, pot, tho, thy, ton, top, toy, yon.

-4 letters: ho, no, oh, on, op, oy, to, yo.

 Words containing the letters "h-n-o-p-t-y"
 

+1 letter: phytons, pythons, typhons, typhoon.

 

+2 letters: hypnotic, neophyte, phytonic, pythonic, typhonic, typhoons.

 

+3 letters: antiphony, endophyte, hypnotics, hypnotism, hypnotist, hypnotize, hypotonia, hypotonic, neophytes, pantyhose, phenotype, phenytoin, polyantha, polyanthi, polythene, pythoness, sycophant, taphonomy, telephony, theophany, trophying.

 

+4 letters: atrophying, diphyodont, endophytes, endophytic, hypertonia, hypertonic, hypnotisms, hypnotists, hypnotized, hypnotizes, hypocenter, hypotenuse, hypotonias, neuropathy, nympholept, pennyworth, periphyton, phenocryst, phenotypes, phenotypic, phenytoins, polyanthas, polyanthus, polythenes, sycophants, symphonist, tryptophan.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Crosswords
3. Usage: Modern
4. Usage: Commercial 		5. Images: Slideshow
6. Images: Photo Album
7. Images: Digital Art
8. Quotations: Non-fiction 		9. Usage Frequency
10. Expressions
11. Expressions: Internet
12. Translations: Modern 		13. Translations: Ancient
14. Derivations
15. Rhymes
16. Anagrams 		17. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.