PARADIGM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does paradigm mean? 

• PARADIGM (noun)
  The noun PARADIGM has 4 senses:

1. systematic arrangement of all the inflected forms of a word

2. a standard or typical example

3. the class of all items that can be substituted into the same position (or slot) in a grammatical sentence (are in paradigmatic relation with one another)

4. the generally accepted perspective of a particular discipline at a given time

  Familiarity information: PARADIGM used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PARADIGM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Systematic arrangement of all the inflected forms of a word

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Hypernyms ("paradigm" is a kind of...):

inflection; inflexion (a change in the form of a word (usually by adding a suffix) to indicate a change in its grammatical function)

Derivation:

paradigmatic (of or relating to a grammatical paradigm)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A standard or typical example

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

epitome; image; paradigm; prototype

Context example:

he provided America with an image of the good father

Hypernyms ("paradigm" is a kind of...):

example; model (a representative form or pattern)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "paradigm"):

concentrate (a concentrated example of something)

imago ((psychoanalysis) an idealized image of someone (usually a parent) formed in childhood)

Derivation:

paradigmatic (of or relating to a typical example)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The class of all items that can be substituted into the same position (or slot) in a grammatical sentence (are in paradigmatic relation with one another)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

paradigm; substitution class

Hypernyms ("paradigm" is a kind of...):

category; class; family (a collection of things sharing a common attribute)

Derivation:

paradigmatic (related as members of a substitution class)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The generally accepted perspective of a particular discipline at a given time

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

he framed the problem within the psychoanalytic paradigm

Hypernyms ("paradigm" is a kind of...):

perspective; position; view (a way of regarding situations or topics etc.)

 Context examples 

The study is one of the latest developments in a paradigm shift that could change how Earth's history is understood.

(Earth's mantle, not its core, may have generated planet's early magnetic field, National Science Foundation)

That runs counter to the centuries-long paradigm that has laid the foundation for the environmental sciences.

(New source of global nitrogen discovered: Earth’s bedrock, National Science Foundation)

These discoveries will provide a new paradigm for using reconfigurable and programmable metasurfaces in many fields, from space exploration and robotics to medicine and microelectronics.

(Saddle-shaped origami enables new microelectronic applications, National Science Foundation)

The current paradigm suggests that the heart adapts to excess of hemodynamic loading by compensatory hypertrophy, which under condition of persistent stress, over time evolves into dysfunction and myocardial failure.

(NFAT Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

The other tests — chronic forced swim test, chronic mild stress paradigm and olfactory bulbectomy — are well-established measures that can also be used to measure how long it takes for an antidepressant to take effect.

(New Method for Treating Depression, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)