# mode

Pronunciation: say "MOHD" US /moʊd/, UK /məʊd/

## Noun

1. A setting or state in which a device, program, or game works in a particular way, often chosen for a specific purpose.
   - Simple: A setting that makes a machine, computer program, or game work in a certain way.
   - _She enabled power-saving mode to make the battery last longer._
   - _The printer has a draft mode that uses less ink._
2. A particular way of accomplishing or carrying out something.
   - Simple: A way of doing something or getting something done.
   - _The committee chose a different mode of communication for urgent updates._
   - _Each mode of transport has its own advantages and costs._
3. A particular condition of being, or one's current frame of mind.
   - Simple: A way you are feeling or behaving at a certain time.
   - _After the loss, the whole team slipped into a defensive mode._
   - _She shifts into planning mode whenever a deadline approaches._
6. The value that occurs most frequently in a data set or distribution.
   - Simple: The value or category that occurs most often in a set of data.
   - _The teacher asked students to calculate the mean, median, and mode of the test scores._
   - _Because two values tied for most frequent, the data set had two modes._
4. Any of several kinds of musical scale, such as the modes of Western music, which include today's major and minor scales, and those of ancient Greece.
   - Simple: One of several kinds of musical scale, used in Western music and in the music of ancient Greece.
   - _The composer wrote the piece in a minor mode to give it a somber feel._
   - _Jazz musicians often improvise by moving between different modes._
5. A prevailing style, fashion, or popular trend.
   - Simple: A popular style or fashion that many people follow.
   - _The magazine declared that wide-legged trousers would be the mode for the coming season._
   - _Dining late became the mode among the city's wealthy families._
7. A verb form determined by how its clause relates to the speaker's wish, intention, or claim about what is real.
   - Simple: A verb form that shows whether something is a fact, a wish, or a command.
   - _The subjunctive mode appears in sentences expressing doubt or hypothetical situations._
   - _Latin verbs inflect for mode, distinguishing plain statements from commands and wishes._
8. In mathematics and physics, a state of a system that is described by one of the system's eigenfunctions.
   - Simple: In math and physics, a state of a system that matches one special solution of the system's equations.
   - _Solving the eigenvalue problem gave the engineers the first five modes of the tower, each with its own natural frequency._
   - _Any motion of the string can be written as a sum of modes, though here the fundamental mode dominates._

## Noun

9. A woman's mantle or cloak fitted with a hood. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: An old kind of woman's cloak that has a hood.

## Other meanings

- (noun) Something that exists only as a quality or property of a substance, not independently.
- (noun) In lace-making, a small decorative piece that is set into the larger pattern of the lace.
- (noun) In lace-making, the openwork that fills the spaces between the solid parts of a pattern.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–4, 6–9** — Latin modus ("measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") reached English through Old French mode. The English word modus is its doublet.
**Meaning 5** — From French mode ("fashion, trend").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/mode (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).