Definition of Modal

1. Adjective. Relating to or constituting the most frequent value in a distribution. "The modal age at which American novelists reach their peak is 30"

Exact synonyms: Average
Category relationships: Statistics
Similar to: Normal
Derivative terms: Mode

2. Noun. An auxiliary verb (such as 'can' or 'will') that is used to express modality.

3. Adjective. Of or relating to a musical mode; especially written in an ecclesiastical mode.
Partainyms: Mode
Derivative terms: Mode

4. Adjective. Relating to or expressing the mood of a verb. "Modal auxiliary"
Derivative terms: Modality, Mode
Partainyms: Mode

Definition of Modal

1. a. Of or pertaining to a mode or mood; consisting in mode or form only; relating to form; having the form without the essence or reality.

Definition of Modal

1. Adjective. of, or relating to a mode or modus ¹

2. Adjective. (grammar) of, relating to, or describing the mood of a clause ¹

3. Adjective. (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

4. Adjective. (logic) of, or relating to the modality between propositions ¹

5. Adjective. (statistics) relating to the statistical mode. ¹

6. Adjective. (computing) Having separate modes in which user input has different effects. ¹

7. Adjective. (computer science) requiring immediate user interaction (often used as ''modal dialog'' or ''modal window'') ¹

8. Noun. (logic) A modal proposition ¹

9. Noun. (linguistics) A modal form, notably a modal auxiliary. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Modal

1. a verb used with other verbs to express mood or taste [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Modal

mocque
mocs
moctezumite
mocuck
mocucks
mocuddum
mocuddums
mod.F.
mod con
mod cons
mod man
mod men
modacrylic
modacrylics
modafinil
modal (current term)
modal(a)
modal alteration
modal auxiliaries
modal auxiliary
modal case
modal cases
modal logic
modal scale
modal stacking
modal value
modal verb
modal verbs
modalise
modalised

Literary usage of Modal

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Grammar of the German Language: Designed for a Thoro and Practical Study by George Oliver Curme (1922)
"Those simple verb-forms which partake of the nature of verbs and have in addition the function and inflection of adjectives or nouns are the modal verbals, ..."

2. The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language by William Dwight Whitney (1890)
"Other verb-phrases, of a modal meaning, are made with the auxiliary verbs may, can, ... All those adjectives which have a modal secondary force are future. ..."

3. The English Language by Robert Gordon Latham (1855)
"modal. It is objective where the noun which follows the verb is the name ... It may also be modal,—/ strike the enemy with the sword = ferio host em gladio. ..."

4. The Works of Thomas Reid, D.D., Now Fully Collected, with Selections from by Thomas Reid, William Hamilton, Dugald Stewart (1863)
"predicate ш barely affirmed or denied of the subject ; but, in a modal proposition, the affirmation or negation is modified, by being declared to be ..."

5. An English Grammar: Methodical, Analytical, and Historical. With a Treatise by Eduard Adolf Ferdinand Maetzner (1874)
"modal verbs in Principal and Dependent Sentences. Л modal verbs, if we go back to the meaning of the gram- mood, we can properly understand only those verbs ..."

6. A Practical German Grammar by Calvin Thomas (1905)
"The pluperfect subjunctive of a modal auxiliary, with accompanying infinitive, ... Omission of Infinitive with modal Auxiliary. After any of the modal ..."

7. A grammar of the Greek language, chiefly from the Germ. of R. Kühner by William Edward Jelf, Raphael Kühner (1861)
"in the verbs in /u the modal vowel is dropped, ... The modal vowel, which signifies the modal relations of the verb, and varies accordingly ; thus 1. Pers. ..."

8. A Hand-book of the English Language: For the Use of Students of the by Robert Gordon Latham (1860)
"But it may also be modal. It is modal when the noun which follows the ... It may also be modal,—I strike the enemy with the sword = ferio hostem gladio. ..."

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