Mode is a particular way or style in which something is done, used, or experienced, such as airplane mode on a phone or silent mode. In math and statistics, the mode is the value that appears most often in a set of data.
From Latin “modus,” meaning “measure, manner, way.” It came into English through Old French and Middle English, carrying the sense of method or style.
The same root that gives us ‘mode’ also gives us ‘modern,’ ‘modify,’ and even ‘modest’—all circling around ideas of measure and manner. When you switch your phone to a different mode, you’re literally changing its ‘manner of being.’
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