pattern

pat|tern1 [ `pætərn ] noun count ***

1. ) a series of actions or events that together show how things normally happen or are done:

We examined patterns of behavior in young children.

follow a pattern (=happen according to a pattern): Training and education follow different patterns in different regions.

a pattern emerges/occurs: With such limited data no clear pattern emerges.

a set/fixed pattern: There is no set pattern for grieving when a loved one dies.

behavior/sleep patterns: survival-oriented behavior patterns

pattern of: Patterns of employment in urban areas are different from those in the countryside.

2. ) a set of lines, shapes, or colors that are repeated regularly:

The carpet was old, with strange patterns on it.

a ) a set of sounds that are repeated regularly, for example in a poem:

a simple rhyming pattern

b ) a set of movements that are repeated regularly:

These birds have different flight patterns.

3. ) a drawing or shape that you use when you are making something, so that you get the shape and size correct:

She made the dress herself from a commercial pattern.

set a pattern (for something)

to be a good example that people will copy in the future:

We're building a transportation system that sets a pattern for the future.

pattern

pat|tern 2 [ `pætərn ] verb transitive

1. ) to make a pattern on something, for example cloth

2. ) usually passive to make something so that it is similar to another thing:

be patterned on/after something: modern housing developments patterned on 19th-century villages