CC @griesemer

Fair point. The notion of a term would also be closer to the usual mathematical use as an operand in a sum (or a list of alternatives as the case is here). That said, factor - while again the usual mathematical nomenclature - does not seem very evocative in this context. Perhaps we should say

Productions are expressions constructed from Alternatives and the following operators, in increasing precedence:

and look for a better name than term.

The current writing deliberately skips Alternatives because at the end all we have is Terms.

Skipping Alternative implies the current description does not apply to FunctionType = "func" Signature .

Using the specs current nomenclature I would suggest:

Expression = Sequence { "|" Sequence } .
Sequence = Element { Element } .
Element = production_name | token [ "…" token ] | Group | Option | Repetition .

Change https://go.dev/cl/405814 mentions this issue: spec: use original terminology in metasyntax (cleanup)