(models, modelling, modelled)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
Note: in AM, use 'modeling', 'modeled'
1.
A model of an object is a physical representation that shows what it looks like or how it works. The model is often smaller than the object it represents.
...an architect's model of a wooden house.
...a working scale model of the whole Bay Area...
I made a model out of paper and glue.
N-COUNT: oft N of n
•
Model is also an adjective.
I had made a model aeroplane.
...a model railway.
ADJ: ADJ n
2.
A model is a system that is being used and that people might want to copy in order to achieve similar results. (FORMAL)
He wants companies to follow the European model of social responsibility.
N-COUNT: with supp
3.
A model of a system or process is a theoretical description that can help you understand how the system or process works, or how it might work. (TECHNICAL or FORMAL)
Darwin eventually put forward a model of biological evolution...
N-COUNT: usu with supp
4.
If someone such as a scientist models a system or process, they make an accurate theoretical description of it in order to understand or explain how it works. (TECHNICAL or FORMAL)
...the mathematics needed to model a nonlinear system like an atmosphere.
VERB: V n
5.
If you say that someone or something is a model of a particular quality, you are showing approval of them because they have that quality to a large degree.
A model of good manners, he has conquered any inward fury...
N-COUNT: N of n [approval]
6.
You use model to express approval of someone when you think that they perform their role or duties extremely well.
As a girl she had been a model pupil...
= exemplary
ADJ: ADJ n [approval]
7.
If one thing is modelled on another, the first thing is made so that it is like the second thing in some way.
The quota system was modelled on those operated in America and continental Europe...
She asked the author if she had modelled her hero on anybody in particular.
VERB: be V-ed on/after n, V n on/after n
8.
If you model yourself on someone, you copy the way that they do things, because you admire them and want to be like them.
There's absolutely nothing wrong in modelling yourself on an older woman...
They will tend to model their behaviour on the teacher's behaviour.
VERB: V pron-refl on/after n, V n on/after n
9.
A particular model of a machine is a particular version of it.
To keep the cost down, opt for a basic model...
The model number is 1870/285.
N-COUNT: usu supp N
10.
An artist's model is a person who stays still in a particular position so that the artist can make a picture or sculpture of them.
N-COUNT
11.
If someone models for an artist, they stay still in a particular position so that the artist can make a picture or sculpture of them.
Tullio has been modelling for Sandra for eleven years.
VERB: V for n, also V
12.
A fashion model is a person whose job is to display clothes by wearing them.
...Paris's top photographic fashion model.
N-COUNT
13.
If someone models clothes, they display them by wearing them.
I wasn't here to model clothes...
She began modelling in Paris aged 15.
VERB: V n, V
• modelling
She was being offered a modelling contract.
N-UNCOUNT: oft N n
14.
If you model shapes or figures, you make them out of a substance such as clay or wood.
There she began to model in clay...
Sometimes she carved wood and sometimes stone; sometimes she modelled clay...
VERB: V, V n
15.