It is just the terminology that is confusing, because the word 'reference' has a different meaning when talking about parameter passing semantics, than when tal

It is just the terminology that is confusing, because the word 'reference' has a different meaning when talking about parameter passing semantics, than when talking about references to objects. The Effbot suggest we call Python call semantics for 'call-by-object-reference' http://effbot.org/zone/call-by-object.htm http://effbot.org/zone/call-by-object.htm which makes it a lot clearer.