example

From Middle English exaumple, example, from Old French essample (French exemple), from Latin exemplum (“a sample, pattern, specimen, copy for imitation, etc.”, literally “what is taken out (as a sample)”), from eximō (“take out”), from ex (“out”) + emō (“buy; acquire”); see exempt. Displaced native Middle English bisne, forbus, forbusen from Old English bȳsen, and Middle English byspel from Old English bīspell. Doublet of sample.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɑːmpl̩/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ɘɡˈzɐːmpɯ/
• (General Australian, US, weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /əɡˈzæmpl̩/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzæmpl̩/

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• Rhymes: -ɑːmpəl, -æmpəl
• Hyphenation: ex‧am‧ple

• Audio (US)

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example (plural examples)

1. Something that is representative of all such things in a group.
   • 2005 May 23, Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism‎, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 182:

     If Demandt's essay served as a strident example of the German desire for normalcy, a more subtle example was provided by a brief allohistorical depiction of a Nazi victory in World War II written by German historian Michael Salewski in 1999.

   • 2013 July 26, Leo Hickman, “How algorithms rule the world”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 26:

     The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use.

2. Something that serves to illustrate or explain a rule.
   • 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:

     Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, […]. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.

3. Something that serves as a pattern of behaviour to be imitated (a good example) or not to be imitated (a bad example).
   • Bible, John xiii, 15

     For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

   • John Milton

     I gave, thou sayest, the example; I led the way.

   • 1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, Chapter 4:

     Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, […]

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. […] Their example was followed by others at a time when the master of Mohair was superintending in person the docking of some two-year-olds, and equally invisible.

4. A person punished as a warning to others.
   • William Shakespeare

     Hang him; he'll be made an example.

   • Bible, 1 Corinthians x, 6

     Now these things were our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

5. A parallel or closely similar case, especially when serving as a precedent or model.
   • William Shakespeare

     Such temperate order in so fierce a cause / Doth want example.

6. An instance (as a problem to be solved) serving to illustrate the rule or precept or to act as an exercise in the application of the rule.

• See also Thesaurus:model
• See also Thesaurus:exemplar

• exemplar
• model
• pattern
• quotation
• template

example (third-person singular simple present examples, present participle exampling, simple past and past participle exampled)

1. To be illustrated or exemplified (by).

• example in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• example in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

• exempla