modal

[mohd-l]

adjective

of or relating to mode, manner, or form.

Music.

pertaining to mode, as distinguished from key.
based on a scale other than major or minor.

Also single modal. Transportation. pertaining to or suitable for transportation involving only one form of a carrier, as truck, rail, or ship.Compare bimodal(def 3), intermodal.

Grammar. noting or pertaining to mood.

Philosophy. pertaining to a mode of a thing, as distinguished from one of its basic attributes or from its substance or matter.

Logic. exhibiting or expressing some phase of modality.

noun

modal auxiliary.

Origin of modal

From the Medieval Latin word modālis, dating back to 1560–70. See mode¹, -al¹

Related formsmod·al·ly, adverbnon·mod·al, adjectivenon·mod·al·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for modal

Historical Examples of modal

Modal, impersonal, existential judgments are all accounted for.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 16, Slice 8
Various
Modal Consequence has also been named among the forms of Immediate Inference.
Logic, Inductive and Deductive
William Minto
Modal verbs may be divided into a multiplicity of divisions.
The English Language
Robert Gordon Latham
The modal period for completed clutches is the first third of June.
The Breeding Birds of Kansas
Richard F. Johnston
As to Modality, propositions are divided into Pure and Modal.
Logic
Carveth Read

British Dictionary definitions for modal

modal

adjective

of, relating to, or characteristic of mode or manner

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

philosophy logic

qualifying or expressing a qualification of the truth of some statement, for example, as necessary or contingent
relating to analogous qualifications such as that of rules as obligatory or permissive

metaphysics of or relating to the form of a thing as opposed to its attributes, substance, etc

music of or relating to a mode

of or relating to a statistical mode

Derived Formsmodally, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for modal

adj.

1560s, term in logic, from Middle French modal and directly from Medieval Latin modalis "of or pertaining to a mode," from Latin modus "measure, manner, mode" (see mode (n.1)). Musical sense is from 1590s.