module
Pluralmodules
- 1A self-contained part of a system, often interchangeable, that connects to the other parts through a well-defined interface.
Technicians replaced a faulty module without taking the whole machine apart.
The system was built from interchangeable modules that share the same connectors.
- 2A section of a program, consisting of a subroutine or group of related subroutines.
She imported the authentication module into her main script.
Each module can be tested on its own before the full program runs.
Note
Programmers usually qualify the word by what the unit contains. In Phil Jones's Visual Basic: A Complete Course (2001), form modules carry a visible interface and class modules do not. Writing on security speaks of protected modules, whose code and data follow stricter access rules than the memory around them. It is the software counterpart of the interchangeable component.
- 3
- 4An independent, self-contained section of a spacecraft that can operate on its own.
Astronauts entered the lunar module before beginning their descent.
The service module separated from the capsule after reentry began.
- 5In architecture, a fixed unit of length used as the basis for setting a building's proportions.
The temple's dimensions were all expressed in terms of a single module.
Classical builders scaled every part of the facade to the chosen module.
Note
The architect's meaning stays closest to the Latin modulus, "a small measure," a diminutive of modus. Classical builders chose one base dimension, typically the radius of a column at its base, and derived every other part from it by simple ratios, so the proportions hold at any size. Unlike the self-contained component, this module is a yardstick, not a piece.
- 6A packaged adventure scenario for use in a role-playing game, supplied with the materials needed to run it.
She bought a classic dungeon module to run for her friends.
Each module comes with maps, monster statistics, and a printed adventure.
Note
Gamers refer to published adventures by title, with the game named after: "the Dragons of Despair module (1984) for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons," as Michael J. Tresca puts it. That book is where his dragonmen first appeared. The pattern of title, then module, then the game it is written for is the usual way to cite one.
- 7A file containing a music sequence that can be played back in a tracker program.
She composed the whole soundtrack as a tracker module.
Each module bundles the note patterns and the sound samples together.
Note
Tracker musicians usually shorten the word to mod. The fuller form music module keeps it apart from a section of program code. Such a file holds both the note sequence and the sound samples it plays, so a single module is a complete, self-contained piece of music.
- 8An abelian group whose elements can be multiplied by elements of a ring (or of certain other algebraic objects), generalizing a vector space with scalar multiplication.
Over a field, a module is exactly a vector space.
Mathematicians study modules to understand how rings act on groups.
Note
Algebraists rarely use the word without its ring. They say a module over R, or an R-module for short. When the ring is not commutative, its elements can act from either side, so writers distinguish left, right and two-sided modules. Over a commutative ring, a left module is automatically the other two as well. Because the integers act on any abelian group, every abelian group is a module over Z.
- 9A fitting on an irrigation channel that regulates the amount of water drawn off from it.
Engineers installed a module to control the flow into each field.
The module keeps the water supply steady even when the canal rises.
Note
In hydraulics the word stays close to its Latin root, modulus, "a small measure." Like the architect's unit of measure, this module deals in a fixed quantity, in this case a measured share of water drawn from an irrigation channel and delivered to the land it serves.
- 10An element that serves as a building block of a fractal.
The fractal is built from a single module repeated at smaller and smaller scales.
Designers vary the module to change the fractal's overall shape.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of module apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Borrowed from French module, from Latin modulus ("a small measure, measure, mode"), a diminutive of modus ("measure"), which also gave us mode. It is a doublet of modulus and mold.