Signal: the response to the electromagnetic resonance at a given time (in FT-NMR; single acquisition) or frequency (in CW-NMR; see for recent trends), as detected in the coil of an NMR spectrometer. The signal is the combination of the frequencies of the individual energy transitions (akin to a musical polychord of tones and overtones). Pattern: the segment of a frequency-domain NMR spectrum that results from one resonance or from multiple overlapping resonance(s) and is commonly assigned to a certain multiplicity.