a. [ Cf. F. modal. See Mode. ] 1. Of or pertaining to a mode or mood; consisting in mode or form only; relating to form; having the form without the essence or reality. Glanvill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Logic & Metaph.) Indicating, or pertaining to, some mode of conceiving existence, or of expressing thought, such as the modes of possibility or obligation. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

3. (Gram.) Pertaining to or denoting mood. [ PJC ]

fld>(Gram.), n. A modal auxiliary. [ PJC ]

fld>(Gram.), n. Any one of the auxiliary verbs of English, such as can, may, will, shall, must, might, could, would, or should, which are used together with the infinitive form of another verb to express distinctions of mood{ 2 }, such as uncertainty, possibility, command, emphasis, and obligation. [ PJC ]

n. (Theol.) One who regards Father, Son, and Spirit as modes of being, and not as persons, thus denying personal distinction in the Trinity. Eadie. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. modalité. ] 1. The quality or state of being modal. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Logic & Metaph.) A modal relation or quality; a mode or point of view under which an object presents itself to the mind. According to Kant, the quality of propositions, as assertory, problematical, or apodeictic. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A system of logic which studies how to combine propositions which include the concepts of necessity, possibility, and obligation. [ PJC ]

adv. In a modal manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

A compound proposition, the parts of which are united modally . . . by the particles “as” and “so.” Gibbs. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. modus a measure, due or proper measure, bound, manner, form; akin to E. mete: cf. F. mode. See Mete, and cf. Commodious, Mood in grammar, Modus. ] 1. Manner of doing or being; method; form; fashion; custom; way; style; as, the mode of speaking; the mode of dressing. [ 1913 Webster ]

The duty of itself being resolved on, the mode of doing it may easily be found. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

A table richly spread in regal mode. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Prevailing popular custom; fashion, especially in the phrase the mode. [ 1913 Webster ]

The easy, apathetic graces of a man of the mode. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Variety; gradation; degree. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Metaph.) Any combination of qualities or relations, considered apart from the substance to which they belong, and treated as entities; more generally, condition, or state of being; manner or form of arrangement or manifestation; form, as opposed to matter. [ 1913 Webster ]

Modes I call such complex ideas, which, however compounded, contain not in them the supposition of subsisting by themselves, but are considered as dependencies on, or affections of, substances. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Logic) The form in which the proposition connects the predicate and subject, whether by simple, contingent, or necessary assertion; the form of the syllogism, as determined by the quantity and quality of the constituent proposition; mood. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Gram.) Same as Mood. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Mus.) The scale as affected by the various positions in it of the minor intervals; as, the Dorian mode, the Ionic mode, etc., of ancient Greek music. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In modern music, only the major and the minor mode, of whatever key, are recognized. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. A kind of silk. See Alamode, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. (Gram.) the value of the variable in a frequency distribution or probability distribution, at which the probability or frequency has a maximum. The maximum may be local or global. Distributions with only one such maximum are called unimodal; with two maxima, bimodal, and with more than two, multimodal. [ PJC ]

Syn. -- Method; manner. See Method. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]

a. Suitable to be taken as a model or pattern; as, a model house; a model husband. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. modèle, It. modello, fr. (assumed) L. modellus, fr. modulus a small measure, dim. of modus. See Mode, and cf. Module. ] 1. A miniature representation of a thing, with the several parts in due proportion; sometimes, a facsimile of the same size; as, a 1/100 scale model of the B-52 bomber. [ 1913 Webster ]

In charts, in maps, and eke in models made. Gascoigne. [ 1913 Webster ]

I had my father's signet in my purse,
Which was the model of that Danish seal. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

You have the models of several ancient temples, though the temples and the gods are perished. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Something intended to serve, or that may serve, as a pattern of something to be made; a material representation or embodiment of an ideal; sometimes, a drawing; a plan; as, the clay model of a sculpture; the inventor's model of a machine. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ The application for a patent ] must be accompanied by a full description of the invention, with drawings and a model where the case admits of it. Am. Cyc. [ 1913 Webster ]

When we mean to build
We first survey the plot, then draw the model. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Anything which serves, or may serve, as an example for imitation; as, a government formed on the model of the American constitution; a model of eloquence, virtue, or behavior. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. That by which a thing is to be measured; standard. [ 1913 Webster ]

He that despairs measures Providence by his own little, contracted model. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Any copy, or resemblance, more or less exact. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou seest thy wretched brother die,
Who was the model of thy father's life. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A person who poses as a pattern for an artist; as, the artist used his daughter as a model for an Indian maiden. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

7. A person who is employed to wear clothing for the purpose of advertising or display, or who poses with a product for the same purpose; a mannequin{ 1 }; as, a fashion model.
Syn. -- mannequin{ 1 }. [ PJC ]

A professional model. H. James. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. A particular version or design of an object that is made in multiple versions; as, the 1993 model of the Honda Accord; the latest model of the HP laserjet printer. For many manufactured products, the model name is encoded as part of the
model number.
Syn. -- modification{ 2 }. [ PJC ]

9. An abstract and often simplified conceptual representation of the workings of a system of objects in the real world, which often includes mathematical or logical objects and relations representing the objects and relations in the real-world system, and constructed for the purpose of explaining the workings of the system or predicting its behavior under hypothetical conditions; as, the administration's model of the United States economy predicts budget surpluses for the next fifteen years; different models of the universe assume different values for the cosmological constant; models of proton structure have grown progressively more complex in the past century. [ PJC ]

Working model, a model of a machine which can do on a small scale the work which the machine itself does, or is expected to do. [ 1913 Webster ]