pattern Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a perceptual structure
    shape; form.
    • the composition presents problems for students of musical form
    • a visual pattern must include not only objects but the spaces between them
  2. noun a customary way of operation or behavior
    practice.
    • it is their practice to give annual raises
    • they changed their dietary pattern
  3. noun a decorative or artistic work
    design; figure.
    • the coach had a design on the doors
  4. noun something regarded as a normative example
    formula; normal; rule; convention.
    • the convention of not naming the main character
    • violence is the rule not the exception
    • his formula for impressing visitors
  5. noun a model considered worthy of imitation
    • the American constitution has provided a pattern for many republics
  6. noun something intended as a guide for making something else
    blueprint; design.
    • a blueprint for a house
    • a pattern for a skirt
  7. noun the path that is prescribed for an airplane that is preparing to land at an airport
    approach pattern; traffic pattern.
    • the traffic patterns around O'Hare are very crowded
    • they stayed in the pattern until the fog lifted
  8. noun graphical representation (in polar or Cartesian coordinates) of the spatial distribution of radiation from an antenna as a function of angle
    radiation diagram; radiation pattern.
  9. verb plan or create according to a model or models
    model.
  10. verb form a pattern
    • These sentences pattern like the ones we studied before

WordNet

Pat"tern noun
Etymology
OE. patron, F. patron, a patron, also, a pattern. See Patron.
Definitions
  1. Anything proposed for imitation; an archetype; an exemplar; that which is to be, or is worthy to be, copied or imitated; as, a pattern of a machine.
    I will be the pattern of all patience. Shak.
  2. A part showing the figure or quality of the whole; a specimen; a sample; an example; an instance.
    He compares the pattern with the whole piece. Swift.
  3. Stuff sufficient for a garment; as, a dress pattern.
  4. Figure or style of decoration; design; as, wall paper of a beautiful pattern.
  5. Something made after a model; a copy. Shak.
    The patterns of things in the heavens. Heb. ix. 23.
  6. Anything cut or formed to serve as a guide to cutting or forming objects; as, a dressmaker's pattern.
  7. (Founding) A full-sized model around which a mold of sand is made, to receive the melted metal. It is usually made of wood and in several parts, so as to be removed from the mold without injuring it.
  8. a definable characteristic relationship between the members of any set of objects or actions; also, the set having a definable relationship between its members. Thus: the distribution of bomb or shell impacts on a target area, or of bullet holes in a target; a set of traits or actions that appear to be consistent throughout the members of a group or over time within a group, as behavioral pattern, traffic pattern, dress pattern
Pat"tern transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Patterned ; present participle & verbal noun Patterning
Definitions
  1. To make or design (anything) by, from, or after, something that serves as a pattern; to copy; to model; to imitate. Milton.
    [A temple] patterned from that which Adam reared in Paradise. Sir T. Herbert.
  2. To serve as an example for; also, to parallel.

Webster 1913