paradigm
Pluralparadigms, paradigmata
- 1A pattern or way of doing something, especially a framework of ideas and beliefs through which something is understood.
Germ theory replaced the old paradigm, in which disease was blamed on bad air.
Remote work has forced managers to rethink the paradigms they inherited about productivity.
UsageOften in a paradigm shift, or fit, challenge or replace a paradigm. Model is a plainer word.
Similarmodel, framework, pattern
Note
Much of this sense's fame comes from Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which got people talking about the paradigm shift: the moment one framework of ideas gives way to another. Heavy use has colored the word since, so calling a view a paradigm can now hint that it is partial or biased.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Thomas Kuhn wrote The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. press.uchicago.edu
- The book popularized the term paradigm shift. en.wikipedia.org
- A paradigm shift involves a change in the framework through which something is understood. en.wikipedia.org
- 2An example that serves as the model for a pattern, or a prototypical or exceptionally good example of a type or group.
For a generation of engineers, the old stone bridge was the paradigm of sound design.
The case is a paradigm example of how a small error can derail a trial.
UsageUsually the/a paradigm of something, or before a noun in a paradigm example or a paradigm case.
Similarmodel, epitome, exemplar, archetype
Note
Its nearest neighbors are exemplar, archetype and template; where the broad "framework" sense names a whole way of thinking, this one picks out the single case that shows it best.
- 3In linguistics, the full set of forms sharing a common element, especially all the inflected forms of a word or of a grammatical category.
Students of Latin memorize the paradigm of each verb, from the present tense through the perfect.
English 'dive' now has two competing paradigms, since both 'dived' and 'dove' are in use.
Note
Grammarians set a paradigm out as a table: sing, sang, sung is one, and ring follows the same paradigm. Linguists contrast these paradigmatic relations, between forms that can fill the same slot, with syntagmatic ones, between words combined in a sentence. In this learned setting the Greek plural paradigmata still appears beside the usual paradigms.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Grammatical paradigms can be displayed as tables. grammaticalframework.org
- Sing, sang, sung exemplifies an inflectional pattern also followed by ring. en.wiktionary.org
- Paradigmatic relations concern alternatives that can occupy the same structural position. etheses.dur.ac.uk
- Syntagmatic relations concern linguistic units combined into larger structures. en.wikipedia.org
- Paradigmata preserves the Greek plural formation. en.wiktionary.org
Practice
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Origin
Ancient Greek parádeigma ("pattern") combines paradeíknumi ("I show beside, compare") with -ma, a suffix that turns an action into a noun for its result. It came into English through Late Latin paradīgma and was established in 1475–85.