I. ˈmōd noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English moede, from Latin modus measure, manner, musical mode — more at mete
1.
a. : a musical arrangement of the eight diatonic notes or tones of an octave according to one of various fixed schemes of their intervals — see ecclesiastical mode , greek mode
b. : a rhythmical scheme ; specifically : one of the six metrical patterns in 13th and 14th century music corresponding to the feet (as trochee or dactyl) in classical poetry and expressed in triple time
2. : mood II 2b
the indicative mode of flat assertion alone — Weston La Barre
3.
[Late Latin modus, from Latin, measure, manner]
a. : mood II 1a
b. : the manner in which a logical proposition is asserted or denied especially as being possible, impossible, necessary, or contingent
4.
a. : a particular form or variety of something
a large and overpowering set of brothers and sisters, who were modes or replicas of the same type — Henry Adams
her anguish of the night before was in another mode — Josephine Pinckney
separating movement on foot from other modes of traffic — Lewis Mumford
b. : a form, pattern, or manner of expression : style
the only English poet who has adapted it to his needs as a regular poetic mode — W.H.Gardner
his romanticism (his first literary mode ) — Austin Warren
perhaps the major expressive mode of his day, the mode of the liberal Emersonian sermon — R.P.Blackmur
5. : a manner of doing something or of performing a particular function or activity
as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress — U.S. Constitution
new modes of experimentation had to be developed — J.B.Conant
the Renaissance mode of thinking in symbols — Michael Kitson
6. : a condition or state of being : a manifestation, form, or manner of arrangement ; specifically : a particular form or manifestation of some underlying substance, or of some permanent aspect or attribute of such a substance — compare : mixed mode , simple mode
7. : a state or manner of living : custom
a homogeneous population that departs reluctantly from long-accepted institutions and modes — American Guide Series: Pennsylvania
bound up with regional modes of feeling and local traditions — Van Wyck Brooks
a sedentary agricultural-hunting mode of life — R.W.Murray
8. : the value of the variable in a statistical distribution for which the frequency is a maximum : the value that occurs most frequently : the most common value
whenever the talk is of Americans the image is always one of the mode or average person — Saturday Review
9. : any of various stationary-vibration patterns of which an elastic body or an oscillatory system is capable
the vibration modes and frequencies of the airplane were computed — Wilhemina Kroll
specifically : the vibration pattern of electromagnetic waves (as in lines or wave guides)
in the field of radar theory the various modes in which waves are propagated are designated by different symbols — Television & Radar Encyc.
10. : the actual mineral composition of a rock as distinguished from the norm
11. crystallog : the type of lattice (as primitive or body-centered)
lattice- mode
Synonyms: see method , state
II. noun
( -s )
Etymology: French, from Latin modus measure, manner — more at mete
1. : a prevailing fashion or style of dress or behavior
harbored the cultural backwash of Europe and looked to its stale romanticism as the mode — H.F.Mooney
sleeping on top of television sets in the mode of the day for cats — New Yorker
the contemporary mode
the newest mode in dresses
all the mode
2. : alamode
Synonyms: see fashion