paradigm
noun
[ ˈparədʌɪm ]
• a typical example or pattern of something; a pattern or model.
• "society's paradigm of the ‘ideal woman’"
Similar:
model,
pattern,
example,
standard,
prototype,
archetype,
ideal,
gauge,
criterion,
paragon,
exemplar,
• a set of linguistic items that form mutually exclusive choices in particular syntactic roles.
• "English determiners form a paradigm: we can say ‘a book’ or ‘his book’ but not ‘a his book’"
• (in the traditional grammar of Latin, Greek, and other inflected languages) a table of all the inflected forms of a particular verb, noun, or adjective, serving as a model for other words of the same conjugation or declension.
Origin:
late 15th century: via late Latin from Greek paradeigma, from paradeiknunai ‘show side by side’, from para- ‘beside’ + deiknunai ‘to show’.
