modality vs spot

modality

noun
  • Any of the senses (such as sight or taste) 

  • The way in which infrastructure and knowledge of how to use it give rise to a meaningful pattern of interaction (a concept in Anthony Giddens's structuration theory). 

  • The organization and structure of the church, as distinct from sodality or parachurch organizations. 

  • The subject concerning certain diatonic scales known as musical modes. 

  • The quality of being limited by a condition. 

  • A particular way in which the information is to be encoded for presentation to humans, i.e. to the type of sign and to the status of reality ascribed to or claimed by a sign, text or genre. 

  • The classification of propositions on the basis on whether they claim possibility, impossibility, contingency or necessity; mode. 

  • The inflection of a verb that shows how its action is conceived by the speaker; mood 

  • The fact of being modal. 

  • A method of diagnosis or therapy. 

spot

noun
  • The act of spotting or noticing something. 

  • A bill of five-dollar or ten-dollar denomination in dollars. 

  • A bright lamp; a spotlight. 

  • The southern redfish, or red horse (Sciaenops ocellatus), which has a spot on each side at the base of the tail. 

  • An official determination of placement. 

  • A brief advertisement or program segment on television. 

  • Penalty spot. 

  • A food fish (Leiostomus xanthurus) of the Atlantic coast of the United States, with a black spot behind the shoulders and fifteen oblique dark bars on the sides. 

  • A variety of the common domestic pigeon, so called from a spot on its head just above the beak. 

  • An autosoliton. 

  • A round or irregular patch on the surface of a thing having a different color, texture etc. and generally round in shape. 

  • A parking space. 

  • One who spots (supports or assists a maneuver, or is prepared to assist if safety dictates); a spotter. 

  • Any of various points marked on the table, from which balls are played, in snooker, pool, billiards, etc. 

  • A difficult situation. 

  • A pimple, papule or pustule. 

  • A stain or disfiguring mark. 

  • A decimal point; point. 

  • A location or area. 

  • Any of the balls marked with spots in the game of pool, which one player aims to pot, the other player taking the stripes. 

  • A small, unspecified amount or quantity. 

verb
  • To cut or chip (timber) in preparation for hewing. 

  • To retouch a photograph on film to remove minor flaws. 

  • To keep the head and eyes pointing in a single direction while turning. 

  • To place an object at a location indicated by a spot. 

  • To support or assist a maneuver, or to be prepared to assist if safety dictates. 

  • To remove, or attempt to remove, a stain. 

  • To loan a small amount of money to someone. 

  • To stain; to leave a spot (on). 

  • To see, find; to pick out, notice, locate, distinguish or identify. 

  • To position (a locomotive or car) at a predetermined point, e.g., for loading or unloading. 

  • To position (an aircraft) on the deck of an aircraft carrier ready for launch by catapult. 

  • To stain; to blemish; to taint; to disgrace; to tarnish, as reputation. 

adj
  • Available on the spot; for immediate payment or delivery. 

How often have the words modality and spot occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )