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modal

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

Etymology 1

From Middle French modal, from Medieval Latin modālis (“pertaining to a mode”), from Latin modus (“mode”). Compare to French, Spanish, and Portuguese modal and Italian modale. By surface analysis, mod(e) +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

Adjective

modal (comparative more modal, superlative most modal)

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
  1. Of, or relating to a mode or modus.
  2. (grammar) Of, relating to, or describing the mood of a clause.
  3. (music) Of, relating to, or composed in the musical modi by which an octave is divided, associated with emotional moods in Ancient — and in medieval ecclesiastical — music.
    1. (of music, by extension) In a mode which is not major or minor scale, the standard modes used in the Western musical tradition.
  4. (logic) Of, or relating to the modality between propositions.
  5. (statistics) Relating to the statistical mode.
  6. (computing) Having separate modes in which user input has different effects.
    Antonym: modeless
  7. (graphical user interface) Requiring immediate user interaction and thus presented so that it cannot be closed or interacted behind until a decision is made.
    • a. 2011, “Dialog Windows”, in Qt Widgets Documentation‎, archived from the original on 7 February 2020:
      Dialogs can be modal, in which case the user is required to provide necessary information before work in the main window can continue, or modeless. Modeless dialogs do not prevent the user from interacting with any of the other windows in the application.
    a modal dialog; a modal window
    Antonym: modeless
  8. (metaphysics) Relating to the form of a thing rather to any of its attributes.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
Terms derived from modal (adjective)
Terms related to modal
Translations
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Noun

modal (plural modals)

  1. (logic) A modal proposition.
  2. (linguistics) A modal form, notably a modal auxiliary.
  3. (grammar) A modal verb.
    • 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational Grammar: A First Course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 61:
      Using the same type of distributional criterion, we could argue that only a Verb (in its base form) can occur in the position marked — in (23) below to complete the sentence:
      (23)     They/it can —
      [...]
      Conversely, the only type of word which could be used to begin a three-word sentence such as (25) below:
      (25)     — I be frank?
      is a Modal: cf. [...]
  4. (graphical user interface) A modal window, one that cannot be closed until a decision is made.
    • 1996, OOPSLA '96: Conference on Object-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications, volume 31, numbers 10-12:
      Modal screen elements are subtrees which, when activated, disable all elements external to them. Examples of modals are yes-no message boxes and the application itself.
Derived terms
Translations

See also

Further reading

Etymology 2

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

A genericized trademark of Lenzing AG.

Noun

modal (uncountable)

  1. (fabric) A semi-synthetic fabric, a very soft kind of rayon textile made from beech tree pulp and processed with chemicals.

Anagrams

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Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin modālis.

Pronunciation

Adjective

modal m or f (masculine and feminine plural modals)

  1. modal

Derived terms

Further reading

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French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin modālis, from Latin modus (“mode”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

modal (feminine modale, masculine plural modaux, feminine plural modales)

  1. (grammar) modal
    un auxiliaire modal ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
    un adverbe modal ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Derived terms

Noun

modal m (plural modaux)

  1. a modal verb
  2. (fabric) modal textile
    cf modal (textile)

Further reading

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German

Pronunciation

Adjective

modal (strong nominative masculine singular modaler, not comparable)

  1. modal

Declension

Positive forms of modal (uncomparable)
More information number & gender, singular ...

Indonesian

Portuguese

Romanian

Spanish

Swedish

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