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: 
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.
A wire is its own object, while a cable consists of 2 or more wires (or some other materials) that are wrapped in some sort of coating.

For example, your laptop charger cord contains conductive metallic wires inside it. A wire hanger has no protective coating outside of the wire.