mod·al (m d l)adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a mode. 2. Grammar Of, relating to, or expressing the mood of a verb. 3. Music Of, relating to, characteristic of, or composed in any of the modes typical of medieval church music. 4. Philosophy Of or relating to mode without referring to substance. 5. Logic Expressing or characterized by modality. 6. Statistics Of or relating to a statistical mode or modes. n. See modal auxiliary. [Medieval Latin mod  lis, from Latin modus, measure; see med- in Indo-European roots.]mod al·ly adv. |
modal [ˈməʊdəl]
adj
1. of, relating to, or characteristic of mode or manner
2. (Linguistics / Grammar) Grammar (of a verb form or auxiliary verb) expressing a distinction of mood, such as that between possibility and actuality. The modal auxiliaries in English include can, could, may, must, need, ought, shall, should, will, and would
3. (Philosophy) (Philosophy / Logic) Philosophy logic
a. qualifying or expressing a qualification of the truth of some statement, for example, as necessary or contingent
b. relating to analogous qualifications such as that of rules as obligatory or permissive
4. (Philosophy) Metaphysics of or relating to the form of a thing as opposed to its attributes, substance, etc.
5. (Music, other) Music of or relating to a mode
6. (Mathematics & Measurements / Statistics) of or relating to a statistical mode
modally adv
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
| Noun | 1. | modal - an auxiliary verb (such as `can' or `will') that is used to express modality auxiliary verb - a verb that combines with another verb in a verb phrase to help form tense, mood, voice, or condition of the verb it combines with |
| Adj. | 1. | modal - relating to or constituting the most frequent value in a distribution; "the modal age at which American novelists reach their peak is 30" statistics - a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters normal - conforming with or constituting a norm or standard or level or type or social norm; not abnormal; "serve wine at normal room temperature"; "normal diplomatic relations"; "normal working hours"; "normal word order"; "normal curiosity"; "the normal course of events" |
| 2. |  modal - of or relating to a musical mode; especially written in an ecclesiastical mode | |
| 3. | modal - relating to or expressing the mood of a verb; "modal auxiliary" |
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