modal

Of, or relating to a mode or modus.

Adjective

  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.

    1. (of music, by extension) In a mode which is not major or minor scale, the standard modes used in the Western musical tradition.

  4. Of, or relating to the modality between propositions.
  5. Relating to the statistical mode.
  6. Having separate modes in which user input has different effects.

    Antonyms: modeless

  7. Requiring immediate user interaction and thus presented so that it cannot be closed or interacted behind until a decision is made.
    • Dialogs can be modal, in which case the user is required to provide necessary information before work in the main window can continue, or modeless. Modeless dialogs do not prevent the user from interacting with any of...
    • a modal dialog; a modal window

    Antonyms: modeless

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

Origin

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.

Forms

more modal most modal

Synonyms

forming conditioning

Related

mode model modeler moderate moderation moderator module modulus mood

Derived

antimodal bimodal crossmodal eigenmodal extramodal heteromodal intermodal intramodal metamodal modal adverb modal auxiliary modal case modal filter modalise modalism modalist modality modalized modal jazz modal logic modally modal particle modal scale modal shift

Noun human sciences, logic

  1. A modal proposition.
  2. A modal form, notably a modal auxiliary.
  3. A modal verb.
    • Using the same type of distributional criterion, we could argue that only a Verb (in its base form) can occur in the position marked — in (23) below to complete the sentence: (23) They/it can — [...] Conversely, the...
  4. A modal window, one that cannot be closed until a decision is made.
    • Modal screen elements are subtrees which, when activated, disable all elements external to them. Examples of modals are yes-no message boxes and the application itself. - 1996, OOPSLA '96: Conference on Object-Oriented...

Forms

modals

Related

semimodal

Derived

double modal essive-modal micromodal modal stacking stacked modal

Noun Entry 3

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

Origin

A genericized trademark of Lenzing AG.