And in this case, I meant it to mean the concept you'll read about if you google "programming paradigm." As clearly indicated by my use of the phrase "programming paradigm."

You can find out about a different concept if you google "philosophical paradigm". That'll give lots of links that talk about Thomas Kuhn.

TL;DR: It may be called a drum, but that doesn't mean you can use a bongo to repair your car's brakes.

But if you expect other people to understand you, you need to be aware of how they expect the word to be used and either use it that way or clarify at the outset that you're using it differently.

'Paradigm' isn't used ambiguously. See also Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm

At the top of that page, you'll see the following text:

> For other uses, see Paradigm (disambiguation).

Click on the blue, and you'll see a list of five bullet points. Click on the blue in the third one.

In my experience, in software, it's often used loosely. However, I was responding primarily to the use of the quote itself.

"Make the following experiment: say 'It's cold in here' and mean 'It's warm in here.' Can you do it?"

Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations §510