A very popular phrase in this website is in the words of Dr Swanson. Another member's longer description of a model is also quoted here   The purpose of this thread is to arrive at a robust definition/description of a scientific model by discussion. Perhaps a summary could then be pinned for future reference as the same issues come up time and time again.   To kick off I note that using just model by itself can be unhelpfully vague and there are many descriptors