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modal

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modal¹

  • /ˈməʊdəl/ UK
  • /ˈmoʊdəl/ Canada, US
  • /ˈməʉdəl/ Australia

Rhymes with -əʊdəl

Where it comes from

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.

adjective more modal · most modal

  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.
  4. broadly, of music In a mode which is not major or minor scale, the standard modes used in the Western musical tradition.
  5. Of, or relating to the modality between propositions.
  6. Relating to the statistical mode.
  7. Having separate modes in which user input has different effects.

    Opposite: modeless

  8. 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 the other windows in the application.

    Opposite: modeless

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

Similar: forming, conditioning

noun modals

  1. A modal (etymology 1, adjective sense 4) proposition.
  2. A modal (etymology 1, adjective sense 2) 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 only type of word which could be used to begin a three-word sentence such as (25) be
  4. A modal (etymology 1, adjective sense 7) 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.

modal²

Where it comes from

A genericized trademark of Lenzing AG.

noun

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

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: normal, average, multimodal, mode, dominant, intermodal, multi-modal, conditional, contingent, hypothetical, possible, potential, auxiliary, subjunctive, dependent, qualified

adjective

Similar: forming, conditioning

Translations

Every language

adj music: of, relating to, or composed in the musical modi by which an octave is divided

Русскийла́довый ládovyj

adj of or relating to a mode or modus

Deutschmodal

adj of, relating to, or describing the mood of a clause

Françaismodal
Deutschmodal
Русскиймода́льный modálʹnyj

adj logic: of or relating to the modality between prepositions

Русскиймода́льный modálʹnyj

adj requiring immediate computer user interaction

Españolmodal
Deutschmodal
Русскиймода́льный modálʹnyj

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Cite this
MLA

"modal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/modal. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

modal. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/modal

Chicago

"modal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/modal.

BibTeX
@misc{modal_2026,
  title = {modal},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/modal},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}