The terms mode shape or natural vibration shape are used in structural dynamics. A mode shape describes the deformation that the component would show when vibrating at the natural frequency. However, the vibration and deformation do not occur until there is an excitation. Depending on this excitation, the result is the total vibration of a structural component, which is basically comprised of the individual vibration shapes.
Thus, natural frequencies and mode shapes indicate how the structure behaves under a dynamic load. The amplitudes of mode shapes are not suitable for a technical quantitative evaluation of the structural component (they are properly scaled in the solution). Rather, the mode shape characteristic is suitable for the qualitative assessment of the dynamics of the structural component.