Mōde, n.
n. [Fr. mode, Pr. modi, Sp., Pg., & It. modo, from Lat. modus, a measure, due or proper measure, bound, manner, form.]
Sense 1. Manner of existing 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 be easily found. Bp. Taylor.
Sense 2. Prevailing popular custom; fashion, especially in the phrase the mode. “Something inconsistent with the easy, apathetic graces of a man of the mode.” Macaulay.
Sense 3. Variety; gradation; degree.
What modes of sight between each wide extreme? Pope.
Sense 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.
Modes I call such complex ideas, which, however compounded, contain not in them the condition of subsisting by themselves, but are considered as dependent on, or affecting, a substance. Locke.
Sense 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 propositions; mood.
Sense 6. (Gram.) The manner of action or being, as expressed by a difference of form in the inflection of a verb; mood.
Sense 7. (Mus.) The arrangement of the intervals in the scale.
☞ In ancient music, mode was equivalent to key; in modern use, only two modes are recognized, the major and the minor. See MAJOR.
Sense 8. A kind of silk.
Synonyms— Method; manner. See METHOD.