mode

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
mode/məʊd/

▶noun

• 1 a way in which something occurs or is done: his preferred mode of travel was a bike.

  ■ Computing a way of operating a system.

  ■ Physics any of the kinds or patterns of vibration of an oscillating system.

  ■ Logic the character of a modal proposition.

  ■ Logic & Grammar another term for mood2.

• 2 a style in clothes, art, etc.

• 3 Statistics the value that occurs most frequently in a given data set.

• 4 Music a set of notes forming a scale, from which melodies and harmonies are constructed.

– origin ME (in the musical and grammatical senses): from L. modus ‘measure’; cf. mood2.