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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

modal.

Of, or relating to a mode or modus.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈməʊdəl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmoʊdəl/Canada, General-American/ˈməʉdəl/Australia
  1. Of, or relating to a mode or modus.

  2. Of, relating to, or describing the mood of a clause.

  3. 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.

  4. 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. In a mode which is not major or minor scale, the standard modes used in the Western musical tradition.

    broadly
  5. Of, or relating to the modality between propositions.

  6. Relating to the statistical mode.

  7. Having separate modes in which user input has different effects.

  8. Requiring immediate user interaction and thus presented so that it cannot be closed or interacted behind until a decision is made.

  9. Relating to the form of a thing rather to any of its attributes.

Where this word comes from

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.

noun/ˈməʊdəl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmoʊdəl/Canada, General-American/ˈməʉdəl/Australia
  1. A modal (etymology 1, adjective sense 4) proposition.

  2. A modal (etymology 1, adjective sense 2) form, notably a modal auxiliary.

  3. A modal verb.

  4. A modal (etymology 1, adjective sense 7) window, one that cannot be closed until a decision is made.

Where this word comes from

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.

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

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

A genericized trademark of Lenzing AG.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.