Paradigm

How to spell paradigm

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce paradigm

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does paradigm mean?

1. nounA typical example, pattern, or underlying framework of ideas that shapes how something is understood.

Paradigm in a sentence

• The new management approach represented a complete paradigm for the company.

• Researchers argued that the discovery would overturn the existing scientific paradigm.

Where does paradigm come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes from the Greek paradeigma, which meant a 'pattern' or 'model', literally something shown alongside others for comparison. It was built from the prefix para-, meaning 'beside' or 'alongside', joined to the verb deiknynai, 'to show' or 'to point out', so the original sense was very close to 'an example held up beside the thing being judged'. Latin took it over as paradigma, and from there it passed into English in the late 1400s, at first chiefly as a grammatical term for a set of word forms displayed as a model, such as a verb laid out through all its endings. The broader modern meaning, a whole framework of ideas or a typical pattern of thought, was popularised in the twentieth century by the historian of science Thomas Kuhn and his notion of a 'paradigm shift'. The spelling trap lives in the silent 'g' and the final 'm': the 'g' is sounded again in the relative 'paradigmatic', which is a useful reminder that it really is there, even though you never hear it in 'paradigm' itself.

How the word is built

• para- (beside, alongside)
• -deigm (from Greek deiknynai: to show, point out)
• -m