module

plural modules

1. A self-contained component of a system, often interchangeable, which has a well-defined interface to the other components.

   1 more example

   A friend who’s spent decades as an auto mechanic recently confided that he’s grateful to be nearing retirement. “These Teslas,” he told me, “they’re not even cars anymore – they’re computers on wheels. When something goes wrong, you don’t fix it; you just replace entire modules.” What was once a craft that any dedicated person could learn has become an exercise in supervised dependency.

   2025 February 11, Joshua Stylman, “How to Forge the Spectator Class”, in Brownstone Journal

2. architectureA standard unit of measure used for determining the proportions of a building.
3. computingA section of a program; a subroutine or group of subroutines.

   Class modules are similar to form modules except they do not have a visible interface (GUI).

   2001, Phil Jones, Visual Basic: A Complete Course, page 254

   1 more example

   When there is more than one protected module in memory, the rules for accessing the code and data sections of a given module treat all the other modules as if they were unprotected memory.

   2013, Helmut Reimer, Norbert Pohlmann, Wolfgang Schneider, ISSE 2013 Securing Electronic Business Processes, page 244

4. A unit of education covering a single topic.

   Which modules are you studying next year?

5. A pre-prepared adventure scenario with related materials for a role-playing game.

   Dragonborn […] first appeared in the Dragons of Despair module (1984) for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons as “dragonmen.”

   2011, Michael J. Tresca, The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, page 81

6. ring theoryalgebraAn abelian group equipped with the operation of multiplication by an element of a ring (or another of certain algebraic objects), representing a generalisation of the concept of vector space with scalar multiplication.

   Modules over a ring are a generalization of abelian groups (which are modules over #92;textstyle#92;mathbb#123;Z#125;).

   1974, Thomas W. Hungerford, Algebra, Springer, page 168

   2 more examples

   Approximately forty-five years ago K. Morita presented the first major results on equivalences and dualities between categories of modules over a pair of rings.

   2004, Robert R. Colby, Kent R. Fuller, Equivalence and Duality for Module Categories (with Tilting and Cotilting for Rings), Cambridge University Press, page vii

   One defines in like manner right K-modules and two-sided K-modules. If K is commutative, then every left K-module is automatically equipped with the structure of right and a two-sided K-module.

   2012, A. A. Kirillov, Elements of the Theory of Representations, Springer, page 29

7. fractal geometrymathematicsA fractal element.
8. computingA file containing a music sequence that can be played in a tracker.

   I composed a number of techno and rave modules back in the 1990s.

   Synonyms: mod

9. engineeringA contrivance for regulating the supply of water from an irrigation channel.
10. space flightAn independent self-contained unit of a spacecraft.