In scholarly research and applied science, a model should not be confused with a theory: while a model seeks only to represent reality with the purpose of better understanding or predicting the world, a theory is more ambitious in that it claims to be an explanation of reality.[4]
Types of model
Model in specific contexts
As a noun, model has specific meanings in certain fields, derived from its original meaning of "structural design or layout":
Model (art), a person posing for an artist, e.g. a 15th-century criminal representing the biblical Judas in Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Last Supper
Model (person), a person who serves as a template for others to copy, as in a role model, often in the context of advertising commercial products; e.g. the first fashion model, Marie Vernet Worth in 1853, wife of designer Charles Frederick Worth.[5][6]
Model (organism) a non-human species that is studied to understand biological phenomena in other organisms, e.g. a guinea pig starved of vitamin C to study scurvy, an experiment that would be immoral to conduct on a person
Model (mimicry), a species that is mimicked by another species
Model (logic), a structure (a set of items, such as natural numbers 1, 2, 3,..., along with mathematical operations such as addition and multiplication, and relations, such as ) that satisfies a given system of axioms (basic truisms), i.e. that satisfies the statements of a given theory[7]
Model (CGI), a mathematical representation of any surface of an object in three dimensions via specialized software
Model (MVC), the information-representing internal component of a software, as distinct from its user interface