modal
/ˈməʊd(ə)l
/adjective
1Relating to mode or form as opposed to substance.In the jargon of transport planners, there has occurred a substantial modal shift in transportation in these cities....
- The objective of integrated public transport is clear - to achieve a high transit modal share with a seamless service using two or more modes.
- That is, a person's income does not vary by mode unless it is defined as net of modal costs.
2 Grammar Of or denoting the mood of a verb.However, it's crucial that the second part of such a sentence (the apodosis of the conditional) normally also has a modal preterite, often would or could or might, but not will or can or may....
- Holmes distinguishes two functions of tag questions: modal vs. affective.
- In contrast to the tense distinctions that characterize English, English-based Creoles are said to make a basic modal distinction between realis and irrealis.
2.1Relating to a modal verb.The modal auxiliaries or modal verbs are can, could, may, might, shall, should, will would, must....
- Seventy-five Panjabi-speaking pupils were assessed on their expression of the English modal auxiliaries can, could, may, and might.
- Here a past modal form - would, could, should, might - is usually called for.
3 Statistics Relating to a value that occurs most frequently in a given set of data.For both mutations the median and modal values were 25% opaque....
- However, if the income variable data were skewed, the median or modal value would be more appropriate.
- These distributions for the variance components imply an a priori distribution of heritability and repeatability with respective modal values of 0.15 and 0.23.
4 Music Of or denoting music using melodies or harmonies based on modes other than the ordinary major and minor scales.We find also a fascination with Baroque counterpoint and modal melodies from Gregorian chant to Appalachian folk tunes....
- Its three highly creative pieces use alternating meters, compelling ostinatos, modal harmonies and, above all, unexpected twists and turns as the ‘plot’ of each piece unfolds.
- How might modern Western instruments be transformed for Arab music, say by retuning the piano for microtonal modal systems?
5 Logic (Of a proposition) in which the predicate is affirmed of the subject with some qualification, or which involves the affirmation of possibility, impossibility, necessity, or contingency.Let the letter ‘M’ represent this operator, and add to the axioms of classical propositional logic the modal axiom M (p v q) iff Mp v Mq....
- In this connection, I describe certain modal paradoxes and the threats they pose for essentialism.
- The three most important parts of this definition for quantified modal logic are the clauses for atomic, quantified, and modal formulas.
noun Grammar
A modal word or construction.These preferences often serve to clarify, but a less deft handling leads to tercets like the following, their force buried under prepositions, pronouns and modals....
- The other students, English majors all, seemed terrified by the prospect of a semester of moods and modals, subordinate clauses and predicate adjectives.
- These complements contain modals and therefore can't be infinitives.
Derivatives
modally
- She habitually does it as part of her routine, which is defined by the co-existence of ontologically and modally different realities.
- ‘The Road Not Taken’ and ‘The Pasture’ sport two marvelous tunes, both modally inflected in a way that may remind some listeners of Vaughan Williams.
- Thus, when I say that Peter is a man, the thought by which I think of Peter differs modally from the thought by which I think of man, but in Peter himself being a man is nothing other than being Peter.
Origin
Mid 16th century (in sense 5 of the adjective): from medieval Latin modalis, from Latin modus (see mode).