modeling

American  

[mod-l-ing] / ˈmɒd l ɪŋ /

especially British, modelling

noun

1. the act, art, or profession of a person who models.

2. the process of producing sculptured form with some plastic material, as clay.

3. the technique of rendering the illusion of volume on a two-dimensional surface by shading.

4. the treatment of volume, as the turning of a form, in sculpture.

5. the representation, often mathematical, of a process, concept, or operation of a system, often implemented by a computer program.

6. Also called imitation.  Psychology. therapy in which a particular behavior is elicited by the observation of similar behavior in others.

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Etymology

Origin of modeling

First recorded in 1575–85; model + -ing ¹

Explanation

Modeling involves making a representation of something. Creating a tiny, functioning volcano is an example of modeling. Teachers use modeling when they have a class election that represents a larger one, like a presidential election. Modeling is anything that represents something else, usually on a smaller scale. Military commanders use physical and computer modeling to plan offensives. Modeling is helpful because it allows you to take a good look at something that is too big or impractical to see otherwise. If a tall beautiful person tells you he has a modeling career, he’s not a miniature version of something, but he does make money being a model. Outside the US, it’s often spelled with two l’s.

Example Sentences

Analysts tracked by FactSet had been modeling $663 million in revenue and 27 cents in adjusted EPS.

From MarketWatch • May 7, 2026

Pommier and her husband, Peter Diel, were living in Miami in the late 1970s when she decided to stop modeling to start her own agency.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 7, 2026

Differential equations are the backbone of scientific modeling.

From Science Daily • May 6, 2026

Astera Labs is guiding for revenue to come in between $355 million and $365 million for the June quarter, well ahead of the $310 million that analysts tracked by FactSet were modeling.

From MarketWatch • May 5, 2026

Eastern private schools, modeling themselves after elite British institutions like Eton, taught rowing as a gentleman’s sport and fed their young-gentlemen oarsmen into the nation’s most prestigious universities, places like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Related Words

• design
• painting