Paradigm
Etymology
From Greek paradeigma, “pattern, model,” from paradeiknynai, “to show side by side” (para-, “beside,” + deiknynai, “to show”). Long a grammar term for a set of example forms, it was recast by Thomas Kuhn in 1962 to name the shared framework of a scientific community — giving us “paradigm shift,” the wholesale replacement of one such frame by another.
noun · /PAIR-uh-dime/
The overall framework of assumptions within which a community thinks and works.
What it names
The mostly-invisible model that shapes which questions people even think to ask — larger than any single theory, it is the frame the theories sit inside.
Example
Remote work did not just change schedules; it shifted the whole paradigm of what an office is for.
Related idea
A model is one specific representation of how something works; a paradigm is the broader worldview that makes certain models seem obvious in the first place.