From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Mode \Mode\ (m[=o]d), n. [L. modus a measure, due or proper
measure, bound, manner, form; akin to E. mete: cf. F. mode.
See Mete, and cf. Commodious, Mood in grammar,
Modus.]
1. Manner of doing or being; method; form; fashion; custom;
way; style; as, the mode of speaking; the mode of
dressing.
[1913 Webster]
The duty of itself being resolved on, the mode of
doing it may easily be found. --Jer. Taylor.
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A table richly spread in regal mode. --Milton.
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2. Prevailing popular custom; fashion, especially in the
phrase the mode.
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The easy, apathetic graces of a man of the mode.
--Macaulay.
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3. Variety; gradation; degree. --Pope.
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4. (Metaph.) Any combination of qualities or relations,
considered apart from the substance to which they belong,
and treated as entities; more generally, condition, or
state of being; manner or form of arrangement or
manifestation; form, as opposed to matter.
[1913 Webster]
Modes I call such complex ideas, which, however
compounded, contain not in them the supposition of
subsisting by themselves, but are considered as
dependencies on, or affections of, substances.
--Locke.
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5. (Logic) The form in which the proposition connects the
predicate and subject, whether by simple, contingent, or
necessary assertion; the form of the syllogism, as
determined by the quantity and quality of the constituent
proposition; mood.
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6. (Gram.) Same as Mood.
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7. (Mus.) The scale as affected by the various positions in
it of the minor intervals; as, the Dorian mode, the Ionic
mode, etc., of ancient Greek music.
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Note: In modern music, only the major and the minor mode, of
whatever key, are recognized.
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8. A kind of silk. See Alamode, n.
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9. (Gram.) the value of the variable in a frequency
distribution or probability distribution, at which the
probability or frequency has a maximum. The maximum may be
local or global. Distributions with only one such maximum
are called unimodal; with two maxima, bimodal, and
with more than two, multimodal.
[PJC]
Syn: Method; manner. See Method.
[1913 Webster]
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From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
mode
n 1: how something is done or how it happens; "her dignified
manner"; "his rapid manner of talking"; "their nomadic mode
of existence"; "in the characteristic New York style"; "a
lonely way of life"; "in an abrasive fashion" [syn:
manner, mode, style, way, fashion]
2: a particular functioning condition or arrangement; "switched
from keyboard to voice mode"
3: a classification of propositions on the basis of whether they
claim necessity or possibility or impossibility [syn:
modality, mode]
4: verb inflections that express how the action or state is
conceived by the speaker [syn: mood, mode, modality]
5: any of various fixed orders of the various diatonic notes
within an octave [syn: mode, musical mode]
6: the most frequent value of a random variable [syn: mode,
modal value]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008) [foldoc]:
Mode
An object-oriented language.
["The Programming Language Mode: Language Definition and User
Guide", J. Vihavainen, C-1987-50, U Helsinki, 1987].
[Jargon File]
(1994-10-21)
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008) [foldoc]:
mode
1. A general state, usually used with an adjective describing
the state. Use of the word "mode" rather than "state" implies
that the state is extended over time, and probably also that
some activity characteristic of that state is being carried
out. "No time to hack; I'm in thesis mode."
In its jargon sense, "mode" is most often attributed to
people, though it is sometimes applied to programs and
inanimate objects. In particular, see hack mode, {day
mode}, night mode, demo mode, fireworks mode, and {yoyo
mode}; also chat.
2. More technically, a mode is a special state that certain
user interfaces must pass into in order to perform certain
functions. For example, in order to insert characters into a
document in the Unix editor "vi", one must type the "i" key,
which invokes the "Insert" command. The effect of this
command is to put vi into "insert mode", in which typing the
"i" key has a quite different effect (to wit, it inserts an
"i" into the document). One must then hit another special
key, "ESC", in order to leave "insert mode". Nowadays,
modeful interfaces are generally considered losing but
survive in quite a few widely used tools built in less
enlightened times.
[Jargon File]
(1994-12-22)
From Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) [jargon]:
mode
n.
[common] A general state, usually used with an adjective describing
the state. Use of the word `mode' rather than `state' implies that the
state is extended over time, and probably also that some activity
characteristic of that state is being carried out. "No time to hack;
I'm in thesis mode." In its jargon sense, `mode' is most often
attributed to people, though it is sometimes applied to programs and
inanimate objects. In particular, see hack mode, day mode, {night
mode}, demo mode, fireworks mode, and yoyo mode; also {talk
mode}.
One also often hears the verbs enable and disable used in connection
with jargon modes. Thus, for example, a sillier way of saying "I'm
going to crash" is "I'm going to enable crash mode now". One might
also hear a request to "disable flame mode, please".
In a usage much closer to techspeak, a mode is a special state that
certain user interfaces must pass into in order to perform certain
functions. For example, in order to insert characters into a document
in the Unix editor vi, one must type the "i" key, which invokes the
"Insert" command. The effect of this command is to put vi into "insert
mode", in which typing the "i" key has a quite different effect (to
wit, it inserts an "i" into the document). One must then hit another
special key, "ESC", in order to leave "insert mode". Nowadays, modeful
interfaces are generally considered losing but survive in quite a
few widely used tools built in less enlightened times.