n. A manner of acting or doing; way of performing or effecting anything; method; way.n. Customary manner; prevailing style; fashion.n. In grammar, the designation, by the form of the verb, of the manner of our conception of an event or fact, whether as certain, contingent, possible, desirable, or the like.n. The natural disposition or the manner of existence or action of anything; a form: as, heat is a mode of motion; reflection is a mode of consciousness.n. A combination of ideas. See the quotations.n. In logic:n. A modification or determination of a proposition with reference to possibility and necessity.n. A variety of syllogism. See mood, the more usual but less proper form.n. The consignificate of a part of speech.n. An accidental determination.n. In music:n. A species or form of scale; a method of dividing the interval of the octave for melodic purposes; an arrangement of tones within an octave at certain fixed intervals from each other.n. These modes were embodied in scales of about two octaves, sometimes called transposing scales, which were more or less susceptible of transposition. By the later theorists fifteen such scales were recognized, each derived from one of the foregoing modes, and beginning at adifferent pitch, each a half-step higher than the preceding. These scales, though not always differing from each other in mode, but only in relative pitch, were also called modes, and were named like the modes themselves. Assuming the lowest tone of the lowest scale to be A, the series of later scales or “modes” would be:n. Hypodorian, embodying mode IV. above, A.n. Hypoionian, Hypoiastian, or lower Hypophrygian (mode V.), B♭.n. Hypophrygian (mode V.), B.n. Hypoæolian, or lower Hypolydian (mode VI.), C.n. Hypolydian (mode VI.), C♮.n. Dorian (mode I.), D.n. Ionian, Iastian, or lower Phrygian (mode II.), E♭.n. Phrygian (mode II.), E.n. Æolian, or lower Lydian (mode III.), F.n. Lydian (mode III.), F♮.n. Hyperdorian, or Mixolydian (mode VII.), G.n. Hyperionian, Hyperiastian, or higher Mixolydian (mode VII.), G♮.n. Hyperphrygian, or Hypermixolydian (mode VIII.), A.n. Hyperæolian, or lower Hyperlydian (mode IX.), B♭.n. Hyperlydian (mode IX.), B.n. The fact that the term mode has been applied from very early times both to the ideal octave-forms, or true modes, and to the practical scales or tonalities based upon them has led to great confusion. Furthermore, the extant data of the subject are fragmentary and obscure, so that authorities differ widely. (The summary here given is taken chiefly from Alfred Richter.) The esthetic and moral value of the different modes was much discussed by the Greeks, and melodies were written in one or other of the modes according to the sentiment intended to be expressed.n. The Gregorian, medieval, or ecclesiastical system was originally intended partly to follow the ancient system. Several of the old modes wore retained, but subsequently received curiously transposed names. The system was initiated by Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, in the latter part of the fourth century, perfected by Gregory the Great about 600, and still further extended between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries. It exercised a deep influence upon the beginnings of modern music, and is still in use in the Roman Catholic Church. The ecclesiastical modes differ from each other both in the relative position of their “finals” or key-notes and in the order of their whole steps and half-steps. They are authentic when the final is the lowest tone of the ambitus or compass, and plagal when it is the fourth tone from the bottom. Four authentic modes were established by Ambrose, the four corresponding plagal modes were added by Gregory, and six others were subsequently appended, making fourteen in all. In each mode certain tones are regarded as specially important — the final, on which every melody must end, and which is nearly equivalent to the modern key-note; the dominant, or principal reciting-note; and the mediant and participant, on which phrases (other than the first and last) may begin and end: these are generically called modulations. All the modes are susceptible of transposition. Assuming the final of the first mode to be A, the full series is as follows (finals are marked F, dominants D,) and mediants M):n. *Not used, on account of the tritone between B and F.n. In the modern system only two of the historic modes are retained — the major, equivalent to the Greek Lydian and the medieval Ionian, and the minor (in its full form), equivalent to the Greek and medieval Æolian. These modes differ from each other in the order of their whole steps and half-steps, as follows:n. See major, minor, and scale.n. In medieval music, a term by which the relative time-value or rhythmic relation of notes was indicated.n. Measure; melody; harmony.n. In lace-making:n. An unusual decorative stitch or fashion, characteristic of the pattern of any special sort of lace; especially, a small piece of such decorative work inserted in the pattern of lace.n. The filling of openwork meshes or the like between the solid parts of the pattern.n. A garment for women's wear, apparently a mantle with a hood, worn in England in the eighteenth century.n. plural In the philosophy of Locke. See def. 5n. Synonyms Method, Way, etc. (see manner), process.To conform to the mode or fashion: with an indefinite it.n. A Middle English form of mood.n. In mathematics:n. The most frequent measure; the class with greatest frequency.n. The point at which a curve, indicating frequencies of occurrence of a variable event, reaches its maximum. In the normal frequency curve (see Quételet's curve), the average is at the same time the mode, while in skew curves the average and mode do not coincide.n. In a table of frequencies which gives a list of the different quantities appearing, with a statement of the number of times that each appeared, the one which occurs most often.n. In biom., that statistical value of a character which is most prevalent in a group of organisms.n. In petrography, in the quantitative classification of igneous rocks (see rock), the actual mineral composition of a rock in distinction from the norm, with which it may or may not coincide.
