paradigm

English

WOTD – 13 June 2006

Etymology

From Middle English paradygme, from Late Latin paradīgma, from Ancient Greek παράδειγμα (parádeigma, “pattern”), from παραδείκνυμι (paradeíknumi, “I show [beside] or compare”) + -μα (-ma, suffix forming nouns concerning the results of actions). Doublet of paradigma.

Pronunciation

Noun

paradigm (plural paradigms or paradigmata)

  1. A pattern, a way of doing something; especially a pattern of thought, a system of beliefs, a conceptual framework.
    Near-synonyms: style, model, worldview
    Thomas Kuhn's landmark “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” got people talking about paradigm shifts, to the point the word itself now suggests an incomplete or biased perspective.
    • 2024 September 30, Michael Doran, “EXCEPTIONALISM AND ASSIMILATIONISM IN FEDERAL INDIAN LAW”, in Stanford Law School‎[1], volume 20, number 2, page 267‎[2], archived from the original on 24 February 2025:
      At times, the assimilationist paradigm has facilitated the physical dispossession of Native lands and the suppression or eradication of Native institutions, culture, and identity by the political branches of the federal government.
  2. An example serving as the model for such a pattern; an exceptionally good or prototypical example of a pattern or group.
    Near-synonyms: template, exemplar, archetype, poster child; see also Thesaurus:exemplar, Thesaurus:model
    • 2000, Estate of William F. Jenkins v. Paramount Pictures Corp.:
      According to the Fourth Circuit, “Coca-Cola” is “the paradigm of a descriptive mark that has acquired secondary meaning”.
    • 2003, Nicholas Asher, Alex Lascarides, Logics of Conversation, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 46:
      DRT is a paradigm example of a dynamic semantic theory, […]
  3. (linguistics) A set of all forms which contain a common element, especially the set of all inflectional forms of a word or a particular grammatical category.
    Synonym: paradigma
    The paradigm of "to sing" is "sing, sang, sung". The verb "to ring" follows the same paradigm.

Derived terms

Translations

References

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