modus operandi

[ moh-duhs op-uh-ran-dee, -dahy; Latin moh-doos oh-pe-rahn-dee ]

noun

, plural mo·di op·e·ran·di [moh, -dee op-, uh, -, ran, -dee, moh, -dahy op-, uh, -, ran, -dahy, moh, -dee oh-pe-, rahn, -dee].

1. a mode of operating or working:

   The aim of a scientist is to investigate the modus operandi of the natural world.

2. one’s usual way of doing something: : MO

   A criminal’s modus operandi can give the police a lead.

modus operandi

/ ˈməʊdəs ˌɒpəˈrændiː; -ˈrændaɪ /

noun

1. procedure; method of operating

modus operandi

1. The way someone does something; a characteristic method: “Her modus operandi in buying a new car always included a month of research.” This phrase , often abbreviated “m.o.,” is used by police to describe a criminal's characteristic way of committing a crime. From Latin , meaning “method of operation.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of modus operandi¹

First recorded in 1645–55; New Latin: literally “mode of working”

Word History and Origins

Origin of modus operandi¹

C17: from Latin

Example Sentences

ESG should be incorporated in every business’s modus operandi … it’s a best practice.

From Popular-Science

I had spent a lot of time studying offenses linked to Hill by modus operandi, DNA or arrest.

From ProPublica

Hidalgo Salazar’s modus operandi will focus on participating in an exercise where LGBTQ individuals outline and work toward what they would like their liberation to look like.

From Washington Blade

The intimacy of sport, the trust young athletes must place in their trainers, and the modus operandi of sexual predators mean that this is a danger regardless of the athletic pursuit.

From Outside Online

Online and phone ordering with contactless delivery or curbside pickup has become the modus operandi for millions of businesses.

From Search Engine Watch

That seems to be the modus operandi as The League moves closer to the seven-year itch.

From The Daily Beast

Each new creative wave that comes along seems to have to challenge the previous modus operandi.

From The Daily Beast

Rubin echoed this message today, explicitly endorsing it as a modus operandi for the Egyptian military.

From The Daily Beast

As always with CBS, if it's not broken, don't fix it seems to be their modus operandi.

From The Daily Beast

But under the ad hoc rules of crony capitalism, the law counts for little and political hardball is the modus operandi.

From The Daily Beast

Once satisfied that it was just and honourable, and it was comparatively child's work to arrange the modus operandi.

From Project Gutenberg

He had a modus operandi of making the conditional mood mean the imperative.

From Project Gutenberg

They might, too, have told us to advantage something about the modus operandi of "walking a plank."

From Project Gutenberg

The modus operandi is exactly the same as for the larger game.

From Project Gutenberg

As for the modus operandi of the fatty food, there is no certainty.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• rule of thumb