mode

¹

[ mohd ]

noun

1. a manner of acting or doing; method; way:

   modern modes of transportation.

2. a particular type or form of something:

   Heat is a mode of motion.

3. a designated condition or status, as for performing a task or responding to a problem:

   a machine in the automatic mode.

4. Philosophy.
   1. appearance, form, or disposition taken by a thing, or by one of its essential properties or attributes.
   2. (in the philosophy of Spinoza) one of the nonessential qualifications of God, contingent upon other modes. Compare attribute ( def 9 ).
5. Logic.
   1. modality ( def 3 ).
   2. mood ²( def 2 ).
6. Music. any of various arrangements of the diatonic tones of an octave, differing from one another in the order of the whole steps and half steps; a type or variation of a scale.
7. Grammar. mood ²( def 1 ).
8. Statistics. the value of the variate at which a relative or absolute maximum occurs in the frequency distribution of the variate.
9. Petrography. the actual mineral composition of a rock, expressed in percentages by weight.
10. Physics. any of the distinct patterns of oscillation that a given periodically varying system can have.

mode

²

[ mohd ]

noun

1. fashion or style in manners, dress, etc.:

   He was much concerned to keep up with the latest mode.

2. a light gray or drab color.

adjective

1. à la mode ( def ).

mode

/ məʊd /

noun

1. a manner or way of doing, acting, or existing
2. the current fashion or style
3. music
   1. any of the various scales of notes within one octave, esp any of the twelve natural diatonic scales taken in ascending order used in plainsong, folk song, and art music until 1600
   2. (in the music of classical Greece) any of the descending diatonic scales from which the liturgical modes evolved
   3. either of the two main scale systems in music since 1600

      minor mode

      major mode

4. logic linguistics another name for modality mood 2
5. philosophy a complex combination of ideas the realization of which is not determined by the component ideas
6. that one of a range of values that has the highest frequency as determined statistically Compare mean 3 median
7. the quantitative mineral composition of an igneous rock
8. physics one of the possible configurations of a travelling or stationary wave
9. physics one of the fundamental vibrations

mode

/ mōd /

1. The value that occurs most frequently in a data set. For example, in the set 125, 140, 172, 164, 140, 110, the mode is 140.
2. Compare arithmetic mean

mode

1. In statistics , the most frequently appearing value in a set of numbers or data points. In the numbers 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 4, 9, 6, 8, and 6, the mode is 6, because it appears more often than any of the other figures. ( See average ; compare mean and median .)

Word History and Origins

Origin of mode¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English mod(e), from Old French or directly from Latin modus “measured amount, limit, manner, kind, tone”

Origin of mode²

First recorded in 1635–45; from French, from Latin modus; mode ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of mode¹

C14: from Latin modus measure, manner

Synonym Study

See method.

Example Sentences

An “incident” is when someone is approached and touched by a shark, or the shark touches their surfboard, paddleboard or similar mode of transport.

From Los Angeles Times

Drawn by the promise of jump scares and Hugh Grant in maniacal-villain mode, set in what appeared from the trailers to be a supernatural trap of a house, I sought big-screen escape from the crowing/hand-wringing news cycle.

From Los Angeles Times

A month before “Master of Me’s” publication on Nov. 19, Palmer is already deep in promotion mode.

From Los Angeles Times

Pascal in mama mode says, “My son don’t have ADD! He just like to jump!”

From Salon

Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León was in full campaign mode two days before Tuesday’s election, when voters would decide whether he deserved a second term.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• approach
• condition
• fashion
• form
• mechanism
• method
• posture
• procedure
• process
• quality
• situation
• status
• style
• system
• technique
• tone