noun

1. 1. a pattern, example, or model
   2. an overall concept accepted by most people in an intellectual community, as those in one of the natural sciences, because of its effectiveness in explaining a complex process, idea, or set of data
2. Gram. an example of a declension or conjugation, giving all the inflectional forms of a word

Etymology: Fr paradigme < LL paradigma < Gr paradeigma < para-, para- + deigma, example < deiknynai, to show: for IE base see diction