"Modeless" is widely used which is not in the dictionary such as "Modal and Modeless Dialog Boxes". Why they do not use "modaless"? If "Modal" is the adjective of "mode", so "Modeless" is the opposite adjective of it. What is the difference between "model" and "mode"
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Please provide a sample sentence that contains the expression you are asking about. Include also several sentences surrounding it so that the context is clear. – linguisticturn Jul 19 '23 at 07:04
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The adjective modal indicates that the noun it modifies is characterized in some way by mode. Something that has no mode would naturally be described as modeless.
The suffix -less is typically combined with a noun. Combining it with an adjective gives you weird words such as softless, fastless, and indeed modalless.
(The word "modaless" posited in the question would denote an absence of "moda" because the l is part of the suffix; two Ls are required when the noun ends in l, as in heelless; if the noun ends with two Ls then a hyphen may be useful: shell-less rather than shellless.)
The suffix -less is "productive," which means that it can be applied to nearly any noun to produce a word, whether that word is in the dictionary or not. In this case, the word so produced denotes an absence of the noun to which the suffix is applied. For example, a political platform that does not espouse antidisestablishmentarianism could be described as antidisestablishmentarianismless, and if you invent something and call it a fronk, the world will no longer be fronkless.
phoog
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1I understand it this way If "Modal" is the adjective of "mode", so "Modeless" is the opposite adjective of it. And I have another question. What is the difference between "model" and "mode"? – Ben Jul 19 '23 at 08:31
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@Ben good point. This is analogous to bridal and brideless (but does not work for most -al adjectives and works only partly for, for example, nasal and noseless). You can ask your additional question here. – phoog Jul 19 '23 at 09:07
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I have used for years the idiomatic terms modal window or dialogbox, but never understood the origin of these expressions frequently used in UI design. Any idea ? – Graffito Jul 19 '23 at 09:18
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@Graffito I have often wondered about modal (the beginning of an answer seems to be there in the page you link to). But I do know where dialog box came from. Why not ask a question? – phoog Jul 19 '23 at 09:39
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@Graffito see What is the difference between dialogue and dialog? for some relevant information. – phoog Jul 19 '23 at 09:41