Seems Apple now refers to everything as a "device" be it a desktop, laptop, watch, iPad or iPhone. For me too it's usually the account P/W ie. my Apple P/W.
Rod, that would be very curious of them. In the iPad and iPhone, there is only one passcode, the "device" PW. No accounts, no admin/user differentiation. Just one device code. So that makes sense for them to call it a device code.
But for an iMac or MBA/MBP or Mini or any other hardware running macOS, the passwords are associated with an account, not a device. Any given hardware can have multiple user accounts, so multiple passwords. I'm thinking that any time it asks for "device" PW, that's the iPhone/iPad but if it asks for an account, or user, PW, or an Admiin password, in macOS, it's the account password.
And I have noticed that when it wants the AppleID password, it is very specific about that, even on iPhone and iPad. On the iPhone/iPad the keyboard pops up for a password, but the number pad for the "device" code. I think it is possible on an iDevice to have an alphanumeric unlock device code, but I've not tried setting one. Maybe the keyboard would open instead of the keypad?
I'll keep an eye out for the next time I see a request for a password to see if Apple has, in fact, changed things.