pattern

USPAT-urn/ˈpætɚn/UKPAT-uhn/ˈpatən/

Pluralpatterns

Verbpatterns, patterning, patterned

28 meanings of pattern

Practice

1
recurring ordernouncountable
A regular way in which something happens or is done, or a recognizable arrangement of events, facts, or features that shows a relationship or allows predictions.
Analysts spotted a clear pattern in the company's quarterly losses.
The numbers followed a predictable pattern, doubling at each step.
UsageCommon phrases: a pattern emerges, events follow a pattern, a pattern of behavior or growth.
Note
Here the pattern is found in events rather than made. When Time wrote in 1980 of “the enduring pattern of violence in Northern Ireland,” the word implied something that had happened often enough to be expected again.
2
repeated designnouncountable
An arrangement of shapes, lines, or colors that repeats or looks regular, whether made as decoration or formed by nature or chance.
The fabric featured an intricate pattern of interlocking diamonds.
Geometric patterns covered the mosque's tiled walls.
UsageOften a pattern of + the shapes or colors: a pattern of blue flowers, a pattern of stars.
Note
A pattern may be designed, as on fabric or tile, or formed by nature, as in a leopard's spots, and it usually rests on repetition. It readily takes of followed by its elements: Valentino, writing in Time in 2003, admired “the subtle pattern of blues and golds” in a painted Madonna's dress. Tessellation is its strict geometric version, in which shapes cover a surface with no gaps or overlaps.
3
sewing guidenouncountable
A paper or cardboard shape used as a guide for marking or cutting out the pieces of a garment from fabric before they are sewn.
The tailor laid the pattern over the wool and traced around it.
Adjusting the pattern slightly gave the jacket a looser fit.
Similartemplate
Note
In dressmaking, a pattern is a set of paper or card pieces, one for each part of the garment, such as a sleeve, a collar or a front. Each piece is pinned to the fabric or traced onto it, and the cloth is cut around it. Because the shape is fixed in the paper, much of the fitting is done by altering the pattern before any cloth is cut. A single base pattern can also be graded up or down into a range of sizes.
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
Dressmaking patterns consist of paper or card templates for garment parts. en.wikipedia.org
Pattern shapes are transferred to fabric by pinning or tracing and guide the cutting. en.wikipedia.org
Fit can be adjusted by altering the pattern before cutting the fabric. pubs.nmsu.edu
Grading produces additional sizes from a base pattern. en.wikipedia.org
4
model for copiesnouncountable
An original object or template that is copied to make others of the same shape or design, such as a full-sized form, often of wood, used to make a mold for casting metal.
The foundry carved a wooden pattern before casting the new metal part.
Each tile was made from the same master pattern.
Note
This is the sense nearest the word's origin. The idiom cut to the same pattern, which Time used of colleges and universities in 1923, borrows the cutter's model to say that things are made exactly alike.
5
verbtransitive
To apply a design or repeated arrangement to a surface.
Artisans pattern the silk with rows of tiny flowers.
He patterned the wooden box with carved swirls.
UsageThe design usually follows with: patterned with carved swirls, pattern silk with flowers.
Similardecorate, adorn, embellish, ornament
6
software designnouncountablein compounds
A reusable, general solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design.
The observer pattern lets objects react when another object changes.
Developers applied a factory pattern to create the new objects.
UsageShort for design pattern, and usually named by its type: the observer pattern, the factory pattern.
Note
Such a pattern is not finished code. It describes a general arrangement, often of classes or objects and their responsibilities, which a programmer then adapts to the problem in hand.

Less common meanings

7
base onverbtransitive
To model something on an example, or to follow it closely; usually used with "after" or "on".
The architects patterned the library after a Greek temple.
Writers sometimes pattern their heroes on people they admire.
UsageUsually after or on names the model, often in the passive: patterned after a Greek temple.
Similarmodel, base, mold
Note
The verb is most often used in the passive and is followed by a preposition naming the model: patterned after, patterned on, or, in older English, patterned from. Thomas Herbert in 1634 describes a temple “patterned … from that which Adam reared in Paradise.”
8
nouncountable
Someone or something held up as an example worth imitating; an exemplar.
The young king became a pattern of virtue for his subjects.
Victorian moralists held up the dutiful daughter as a pattern for every girl to follow.
UsageOf names the quality, for or to the people who copy: a pattern of virtue, a pattern for every girl.
Similarmodel, paragon, example, exemplar, epitome
Note
Here the pattern is a person or thing that others should copy. In Bleak House, Ada writes that Richard will one day find cousin John "a pattern of truth, sincerity, and goodness"; Russell makes Socrates "a pattern to subsequent philosophers". The construction is worth copying: of names the virtue displayed, for or to names those who should imitate it. The adjective use keeps the same admiring sense.
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
In Bleak House, Ada writes to Richard that he will eventually recognize cousin John as “a pattern of truth, sincerity, and goodness”. gutenberg.org
Bertrand Russell describes Socrates as “a pattern to subsequent philosophers”; the full sentence specifies the Platonic Socrates. spiritual-minds.tripulser.com
9
text matchingnouncountable
A text string containing wildcards, used to match other strings.
The script matched each line against a pattern with two wildcards.
A single pattern caught every email address in the document.
UsageText matches a pattern: a file matches the pattern; the whole task is pattern matching.
Note
Programmers and shell users mean a string with wildcards that stands for many strings at once, so *.txt can match files ending in .txt. A regular expression is a richer form of the same idea, with more symbols for describing what counts as a match.
10
nouncountable
A sample or specimen that shows what a larger whole or a proposed design is like, such as a trial coin that was never issued.
The museum owns a rare pattern, a trial coin whose design the mint never issued.
The star of the auction was a gold pattern for a coin that the mint never issued.
11
behave alikeverbintransitive
To fall into or fit a regular, recognizable arrangement.
These dialects pattern together in their vowel sounds.
The survey responses pattern according to age group.
UsageUsually with together or with: two sounds pattern together; one form patterns with another.
Similargroup
Note
Two forms pattern together when they behave alike, and an uncertain element patterns well with known ones. Cid Swanenvleugel (2025) argues that a doubtful Sardinian prefix “patterns well with the other discussed instances … both morphologically and semantically.” It is a technical way of saying that the forms belong to the same class.
12
shot spreadnouncountable
The spread, range, and arrangement of shot pellets after being fired from a gun.
At forty yards the pattern had spread too wide for a clean shot.
Hunters test different chokes to find the pattern that suits their quarry.
Similarspread
13
adjective
Matching the usual or ideal type so closely that it serves as a model for others of its kind.
She was held up as a pattern wife in the old novels.
In the novel, the vicar's wife is held up as a pattern housekeeper, though the narrator clearly finds her tiresome.
UsageGoes before a noun: a pattern wife, a pattern housekeeper.
Similarmodel, exemplary, ideal, textbook
Note
This adjective stands only before a noun, as in Trollope's “a pattern parson and a pattern husband” (Framley Parsonage, 1861). The praise could turn sour: in Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Lady Anne Granard, a sister scorns “straw-bonneted, gingham-gowned pattern wives,” mocking a perfection that seems too correct.
14
verbarchaictransitive
To serve as a model or example for someone or something.
15
track habitsverbtransitive
To study an animal closely over a period of time in order to learn its habitual movements and behaviors.
Experienced hunters pattern a flock of turkeys to predict where they roost.
She patterned the herd through the fall, noting each feeding ground.
Similarscout, track, study
Note
A hunter who patterns a deer or a flock learns its routine over days or seasons: when it feeds, which routes it travels, and where it goes at dusk. The aim is to be waiting there. The object may be the animal or its movements. The word should be kept apart from a shotgun's spread of shot, another hunting use of the same word.
16
dress materialnoundatedUScountable
Enough fabric or other material to make a single garment.
Similarlength
Note
In older American usage the word could mean a length of cloth sold as a unit: a pattern of silk is enough silk for one gown. It is easily confused with the paper cutting template, which is laid on top of the fabric. Here the pattern is the fabric itself, and the construction is a pattern of followed by the material.
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Historically, American English used pattern for enough material to make a garment. en.wiktionary.org
Lengths of dress fabric were sold as units called patterns. leofrank.tv
A cutting pattern is placed on the fabric. gutenberg.org
17
noun
In a tracker module, a sequence of notes and percussion that can be used once or repeated throughout the song.
18
noun
A particular configuration of cells within the grid of a cellular automaton.
19
verbdialectalMulticultural London English
To arrange, organize, or set something in order.
20
noundialectalMulticultural London English
An arrangement, agreement, or established way of conducting business.
21
verbdialectalMulticultural London English
To set things up so that something, especially illegal drugs, can be sold or supplied.
22
verbdialectalMulticultural London English
To physically attack or assault someone.
23
verbdialectalMulticultural London English
To punish or discipline someone in order to teach them a lesson.
24
verbdialectalMulticultural London English
To do or perform some activity.
25
verbdialectalMulticultural London English
To have sexual intercourse with someone.
26
nounarchaic
A reproduction or duplicate of something.
27
nouncolloquialSingapore
In Singapore English, a habit of making a fuss, playing tricks, or stirring up trouble.
28
nounIreland
In Ireland, the prayers and gatherings a parish holds each year on its patron saint's feast day.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of pattern apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Medieval Latin patrōnus ("patron") gave Old French patron, which became Middle English patron, meaning both "patron" and "example." Through earlier forms such as patten and paterne it became the modern word. Its doublets are padrone, patron, Patronus, and patroon.