Question: As far as I know, a cable and a cord are both constructed from wires and some kind of housing, and the words are used interchangeably by most people (in my experience). Are they interchangeable, do either have more specific connotations that the other does not, and is there consensus?

[This post](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/299qav/eli5_the_difference_between_a_cable_a_cord_and_a/) on reddit suggests they're similar, and includes links to definitions that suggest a cable is bigger / stronger etc.

Answer: 
Both terms are non-specific and the two overlap quite a bit. 

A braided steel *cable* (with no insulation) is used to pull cable cars up hills in San Francisco, while a braided *chord* (with no wires) is used to pull down the window shade next to me in this room. 

One definition of *cable* is that it consists of multiple strands. By this definition a single strand of drawn or extruded wire is not a "cable", but if you twist or braid together two or more strands (with or without insulation) then you have a "cable". Some would even extend this definition to cover non-metallic strings/threads -- a single strand is not a "cable" but multiple strands together creates one.

The standard electrician's definition is that a single wire is not a "cable", but multiple wires, separately insulated and somehow bound together does comprise a "cable".

*Cord* is less well defined than *cable*, as the word is not used in a technical sense very much (except in medicine). But basically it means (in the general sense of this answer) multiple strands twisted or braided together.

With regard to electrical cables vs cords, the tendency is to use "cord" for a collection of insulated wires intended to be handled frequently (as a lamp cord or the cord for your earphones), and to use "cable" for a relatively fixed connection (as the wires in your walls or the cable connecting your TV to "cable").

But it's not writ in stone.
In forty years working in IT when referring to hardware we always used the word cable when referring to something that carried data from one device to another: ethernet cables, printer cables, monitor cables, never a cord. The connection that supplied power was a power cord, never a cable.  

But that was in the context of people who worked with hardware. Outside of that you hear (or heard) such things as power cable and telephone cord.