mode

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: 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.

The duty of itself being resolved on, the mode of doing it may easily be found.— Taylor, Jeremy

A table richly spread in regal mode.— John Milton

2. Prevailing popular custom; fashion, especially in the phrase the mode.

The easy, apathetic graces of a man of the mode.— Thomas Babington Macaulay

3. Variety; gradation; degree. Alexander Pope

4. Metaphysics 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.

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.— John Locke

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.

6. Grammar Same as Mood.

7. Music 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.

☞ In modern music, only the major and the minor mode, of whatever key, are recognized.

8. A kind of silk. See Alamode, noun

9. Grammar 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.

Synonyms: Method; manner. See Method.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: GCIDE editors

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

<language> 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)

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]

3.<hardware> video mode.

(1994-12-22)

The Jargon File

[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.