a modo de

prep. by way of, like

= by way of, in the vein of, as a kind of
Ex: An annotation is a note added to the title and/or other bibliographic information concerning a document, by way of comment or explanation. Ex: During the nearly hour long interview the interviewing board and the candidate had roamed freely over an enormous range of topics, much of it in the vein of small-talk. Ex: In a way, it is acting as a kind of bridge between the two, permitting traffic both ways where once there was a divide.