The definition of a paradigm is a widely accepted example, belief or concept.
(noun)See paradigm in Webster's New World College Dictionary
noun
Origin: Fr paradigme < LL paradigma < Gr paradeigma < para-, para- + deigma, example < deiknynai, to show: for IE base see diction
Related Forms:
See paradigm in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun
Origin:
Origin: Middle English, example
Origin: , from Late Latin paradīgma
Origin: , from Greek paradeigma
Origin: , from paradeiknunai, to compare
Origin: : para-, alongside; see para-1
Origin: + deiknunai, to show; see deik- in Indo-European roots
. Usage Note: Paradigm first appeared in English in the 15th century, meaning “an example or pattern,” and it still bears this meaning today: Their company is a paradigm of the small high-tech firms that have recently sprung up in this area. For nearly 400 years paradigm has also been applied to the patterns of inflections that are used to sort the verbs, nouns, and other parts of speech of a language into groups that are more easily studied. Since the 1960s, paradigm has been used in science to refer to a theoretical framework, as when Nobel Laureate David Baltimore cited the work of two colleagues that “really established a new paradigm for our understanding of the causation of cancer.” Thereafter, researchers in many different fields, including sociology and literary criticism, often saw themselves as working in or trying to break out of paradigms. Applications of the term in other contexts show that it can sometimes be used more loosely to mean “the prevailing view of things.” The Usage Panel splits down the middle on these nonscientific uses of paradigm. Fifty-two percent disapprove of the sentence The paradigm governing international competition and competitiveness has shifted dramatically in the last three decades.Learn more about paradigm