Definition of: example

(ig·zam′pəl, -zäm′-) noun
1. A thing or person suitable to be used as a model.
2. An instance of something to be avoided; an act, especially a punishment, serving or designed to serve as a warning.
3. A sample; specimen.
4. An instance serving to illustrate a rule.
5. A problem to be solved.
6. That with which something may be compared; precedent; parallel.
—v.t. Obs.
1. To exemplify.
2. To teach by example. [<OF, earlier essample <L exemplum something taken out <eximere <ex- out + emere buy. Doublet of SAMPLE.] Synonyms (noun): archetype, exemplar, exemplification, ideal, model, pattern, precedent, prototype, sample, specimen, standard, type, warning. From its original sense of sample or specimen (L exemplum), example derives the seemingly contradictory meanings, on the one hand of a pattern or model, and on the other hand of a warning
—a sample or specimen of what is to be followed, or of what is to be shunned. An example, however, may be more than a sample or specimen of any class; it may be the very archetype or prototype to which the whole class must conform. Example comes nearer to model than to the necessary exactness of the pattern. In its application to a person or thing, exemplar can scarcely be distinguished from example; but example is most frequently used for an act, or course of action, for which exemplar is not used; as, one sets a good (or a bad) example. An exemplification is an illustrative working out in action of a principle or law, without any reference to its being copied or repeated; an example guides, an exemplification illustrates or explains. Compare ARCHETYPE, MODEL, PRECEDENT, SAMPLE.