paradigm

A paradigm (pronounced PEHR-uh-daim , from Greek paradeiknyai - to show side by side) is a pattern or an example of something. The word also connotes the ideas of a mental picture and pattern of thought. Thomas Kuhn uses the word to mean the model that scientists hold about a particular area of knowledge. Kuhn's famous book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , is his view of the stages through which a science goes in getting from one paradigm to the next.