Apple uses "modal" often in their documentation. Like dismissModalViewController in their titles of methods, or documentation like:

"The UIViewController class provides the fundamental view-management model for iPhone applications. The basic view controller class supports the presentation of an associated view in addition to basic support for managing modal views and rotating views in response to device orientation changes. Subclasses such as UINavigationController and UITabBarController provide additional behavior for managing complex hierarchies of view controllers and views."

I'm not sure as to what context I should think of when I see modal in the names and documentation. Any thoughts? Thanks.