Modus operandi

A modus operandi is repetitive pattern or a person's particular way of doing things. It's used when a person does what they shouldn't do.

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WotD: Modus operandi

If you enjoy watching police dramas, you will have heard the actors talking about a perpetrator’s modus operandi.


A modus operandi is a repetitive pattern or a person’s particular way of doing things.


Actually, it’s more often referred to as a bad guy’s MO.

You’ll hear them say serial sex offenders, peeping toms or repeat thieves who prefer B & Es or breaking and entering into people’s homes often have the same MO police can use to catch them.

What that means is that people are creatures of habit.

It doesn’t matter if you are a bad guy or just a lovely little old lady; we all have a particular way of doing things.

Often if you can find a repetitive pattern or a person’s particular way of doing things, you will eventually be able to identify that person.

We all have our specific MO.

If you have children, you can probably tell who left the fridge door open, made a mess in the kitchen, washed their dirty hands in the sink, and then didn’t bother to clean it afterward by their MO.

Each kid has a particular pattern of naughty behaviour, or perhaps your not-so-better half was the culprit.

If you haven’t already clued in, modus operandi is yet another example of Latin used in modern English.

It’s all around you; you only have to open your eyes to see it in your life.

Anyways, as you can see from my example, MO is usually used when someone has done something they shouldn’t have done.

It could be something as serious as murder or something as annoying as leaving the toilet seat up.

No matter the crime, the more it happens, the more it becomes associated with the person who committed it and the more likely they will get caught eventually.

Remember, nobody is an angel.

You should think about the clues you’re leaving behind and change your modus operandi occasionally.


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