The mode means "most common" number.
So the most common number of readers may be none.
The first French-derived word is the 76th most common: "number".
It seems unlikely that the most common number of readers is going to be, say, 1,352.
But it's possible to get sucked up without talking to terrorists, via some other common number – a voice-mail dial-in, or a telemarketer, or a pizza place.
Eight chukkers are played in Argentina, and four is a common number in England and on the European continent.
In an earlier column (June 3), I wrote "the most common number of readers for academic papers, once published, is zero".
Here the difference which makes the superior weight heavier is the single point which remains when the common number, four, is subtracted.
A less common number was seven, representing the cardinal direction plus "up" or the sky, "down" or the world below, and "centre" or the location of the ritual.
It launched with a spoof poster campaign and website, trashbat.co.ck, advertising a fictional "Wasp T-12 phone", which has a larger number five-key "because it's the most common number".
Fear of becoming one of the surprisingly common number of pro-looking riders who, locked into their pedals, totter at traffic lights and fall slowly, Laurel and Hardy-style, to the ground.
