Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use modal in a sentence

31 example sentences · adjective, noun

Modal means of, or relating to a mode or modus. Example: “Parts of the UK are experiencing a modal shift towards non-motorized transport.”

Examples of modal by meaning

adjectiveRequiring immediate user interaction and thus presented so that it cannot be closed or interacted behind until a...

  • a modal dialog; a modal window
  • Dialogs can be modal, in which case the user is required to provide necessary information before work in the main window can continue, or modeless.a. 2011, “Dialog Windows”, in Qt Widgets Documentation, archived from the original on 07 Feb 2020

nounA modal (etymology 1, adjective sense 7) window, one that cannot be closed until a decision is made.

  • Modal screen elements are subtrees which, when activated, disable all elements external to them.1996, OOPSLA '96: Conference on Object-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications, volume 31, numbers 10-12

More sentences with modal

  • Parts of the UK are experiencing a modal shift towards non-motorized transport.From the entry modal shift
  • For quotations using this term, see Citations:stacked modal.From the entry stacked modal
  • Equal parts jazz landmark and make-out album, it rewards the listener on every level, and established modal jazz as a sub-genre that is still being explored.From the entry make-out
  • The first instances of double modals date back to the seventeenth century.2019, Irina S. Lebedeva, Svetlana N. Orlova, “Semantics and pragmatics of the double modal ‘might could’”, in Training, Language and…. From the entry double modal
  • The modal analysis was used to characterize the eigenoscillation behaviour of the structure without external excitation.2015 August 5, “Characterization of Dynamic Behaviour of MCF7 and MCF10A Cells in Ultrasonic Field Using Modal and Harmonic Analyses”, in…. From the entry eigenoscillation
  • The volitive moods (also called volitives, volitional forms, modals, or projectives) are the imperative, jussive, and cohortative.2007, Ronald James Williams, John C. Beckman, Williams' Hebrew Syntax, →ISBN, page 78. From the entry projective
  • But suppose that I am wrong; suppose these notions are really ineliminably modal.2007 September 5, David Denby, “Generating possibilities”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 141, number 2, →DOI. From the entry ineliminably
  • All languages use a phonation type called normal or modal voice as the basis for all speech.2005, Michael Ashby, John Maidment, Introducing Phonetic Science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 97. From the entry phonation
  • We accept money, approved modal barter, agalmic kudos metrics, temporal futures, and—”2004, Timelike Diplomacy: Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise. From the entry agalmics
  • The modal operators □ and ◊ stand for alethic necessity and possibility.2003, Nicholas Asher, Alex Lascarides, Logics of Conversation, page 46. From the entry alethic
  • If counterpart theory calls for the rejection of some popular modal principles, that needn't worry us.1983, David Lewis, Philosophical Papers, volume 1, page 45. From the entry counterpart theory
  • The verb following a modal auxiliary must be in infinitival (untensed) form, such as chase (and not chased, chases, chasing).2025, Edward A. F. Gibson, “Dependency Grammar” (chapter 3), in Syntax: A Cognitive Approach, MIT Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 69. From the entry infinitival
  • They are acceptable in characterizing sentences, in modal contexts including partitives and with subtrigging in affirmative episodic contexts.1998, Veneeta Dayal, “"Any" as Inherently Modal”, in Linguistics and Philosophy, volume 21, number 5, →DOI, →JSTOR, page 469. From the entry subtrigging
  • Naturally we want to do it automatically and invisibly so applications never see a difference between modal and modeless dialogs.1992 June, Paul DiLascia, “Modeless Dialogs”, in Windows++: Writing Reusable Windows Code in C++ (The Andrew Schulman Programming Series)…. From the entry kludginess
  • Even when their quantified modal logics look Haecceitistic, their pre-systematic remarks may explain the so-called identities as a manner of speaking.1975 November 6, David Kaplan, “How to Russell a Frege–Church”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 72, number 19, →DOI, →JSTOR, page 723. From the entry haecceitist
  • The projected modal switch from car, coach and short-haul flights to rail remains very modest, despite all the evidence available from high-speed introductions elsewhere.2020 May 6, Jim Steer, “Full Business Case offers fresh insight into HS2's prospects”, in Rail, page 50. From the entry short-haul
  • Although at first glance combinations of two modal verbs might seem to be cases of grammatical distortion, their use is scientifically recognised.2019, Irina S. Lebedeva, Svetlana N. Orlova, “Semantics and pragmatics of the double modal ‘might could’”, in Training, Language and…. From the entry modal verb
  • And so we would expect there to be a modal analog of our McTaggartian argument against nonpresentist A-Theories that threatens Bricker's nonstandard modal realism.2015, Ross P. Cameron, The Moving Spotlight: An Essay on Time and Ontology. From the entry McTaggartian
  • The jargon is of course of medieval origin, but the term ‘haecceitism’ was introduced into contemporary discussions of modal metaphysics by David Kaplan.2012, Robert Stalnaker, Mere Possibilities: Metaphysical Foundations of Modal Semantics, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press…. From the entry haecceitism
  • With the other modal categories it is impossible (or would be very inaccurate) to assign them to a specific position or layer as a whole.2009, Heiko Narrog, Modality in Japanese, page 225. From the entry boulomaic
  • Kripke is an essentialist, and so he is motivated to do things (such as reconstruing some modal intuitions) that are motivated by essentialism.2002, Conceivability and Possibility, →ISBN, page 241. From the entry reconstrue
  • Other topics, such as abstract algebraic logic, modal logic and the so--called (central) finitizability problem in algebraic logic will be dealt with; the last in some detail.2015, Tarek Sayed Ahmed, “A brief history of algebraic logic from neat embeddings to rainbow constructions”, in arXiv. From the entry finitizability
  • According to counterpart theory, Humphrey himself has the modal property, might have won the election, in virtue of his counterpart having the (non-modal) property, won the election.2013, Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne, Dean W. Zimmerman, Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics. From the entry counterpart theory
  • We develop a set of six coupled equations governing the modal amplitudes and phase angles (mode-center offsets) for the flat, piezoelectric plate resonator with massy electrodes of unequal thickness.2003 October 5-8, J. A. Kosinski, 2003 IEEE Symposium on Ultrasonics, volume 1, abstract, pages 70-73. From the entry massy
  • Various subcategories of discontinuity (implicit, internal, modal, external) can be applied, to demonstrate the adaptational and disorientative function of art within different media and historical periods.2001, Ken Ireland, Sequential Dynamics of Narrative. From the entry disorientative
  • More problematic is the essentialism that interests modal logicians, namely "the view that some attributes belong to an object by necessity whereas others belong to it contingently."1991, Garth L. Hallett, Essentialism: A Wittgensteinian Critique, →ISBN, page 2. From the entry essentialism
  • The highest modal concentrations in a 10-cent range were 78.5 per cent in seamless hosiery, 70.6 per cent in enameled utensilware and 66.7 per cent in radio manufacturing.1944 February, W. Rupert Maclaurin, “Wages and Profits in the Paper Industry, 1929–1939”, in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, volume…. From the entry utensilware
  • But since the various "tenses" do not always have temporal meaning, but may have modal or aspectual meanings instead, we prefer the more unusual but less misleading term of screeve.1990 [1982], Howard I. Aronson, Georgian: A Reading Grammar, Corrected edition, →ISBN, page 41. From the entry screeve

Meaning of modal

  1. adjective Of, or relating to a mode or modus.
  2. adjective Of, relating to, or describing the mood of a clause.
  3. adjective Of, relating to, or composed in the musical modi by which an octave is divided, associated with emotional moods in Ancient — and in medieval ecclesiastical — music.

Full definition of modal

Questions about modal in a sentence

How do you use modal in a sentence?
Modal is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “Parts of the UK are experiencing a modal shift towards non-motorized transport.”
What is a short sentence with modal?
“a modal dialog; a modal window”
What does modal mean?
Modal means of, or relating to a mode or modus.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: modal (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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