means In statistics, the value that appears most frequently in a data set; more broadly, a way or manner in which something occurs or is done.

from From Latin 'modus,' meaning 'measure, manner, way' — the same root that gives us 'moderate,' 'modest,' and 'modify.' It reached English partly through French 'mode' (fashion, manner), which is why the word can mean both a method of operating and the prevailing style of the moment. The statistical sense — the most common value — is a later, narrower borrowing of that same 'manner in which things tend to be.'