instance — English Dictionary

instance
Pronunciations (2)
  • /ˈɪnstəns/
  • ˈɪnstəns

Noun

  1. Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Obsolete
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    I know one very well alied, to whom, at the instance of a brother of his[…], I spake to that purpose[…].

    […]undertook at her instance to restore them.

    More examples (1)

    It was settled, as long ago as the first Congress, at the instance of Madison, then in the Senate, and by the deciding vote of John Adams, then Vice-President, that even where the advice and consent of the Senate was necessary to the appointment of an officer, the President had the absolute power to remove him without consulting the Senate.

  2. A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Obsolete
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    It sends some precious instance of itself/ After the thing it loves.

  3. That which is urgent; motive.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Obsolete
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.

  4. A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something).

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Obsolete
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    The reason that I gather he is mad, Besides this present instance of his rage, Is a mad tale he told to day at dinner […]

  5. An occasion; an order of occurrence.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    The Statutes, or Acts of Parliament themſelves. Theſe ſeem, as if in the Time of Edw[ard] I. they were drawn up into the Form of a Law in the firſt Inſtance, and ſo aſſented to by both Houſes, and the King, as may appear by the very Obſervation of the Contexture and Fabrick of the Statutes of thoſe Times.

  6. A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    August 30, 1706, Francis Atterbury, a sermon preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, at the funeral of Mr. Tho. Bennet most remarkable instances of suffering

    sometimes we love those that are absent, saith Philostratus, and gives instance in his friend Athenodorus, that loved a maid at Corinth whom he never saw […]

  7. One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    One's own death is an 'accidental' event, simply another instance of the general rule that human beings die.

    If you choose to drink again the best way to avoid another instance of withdrawal is to avoid drinking two days in a row.

    More examples (1)

    The organisations claim fraudsters are targeting properties belonging to both individuals and companies, in some instances using forged documents.

  8. A specific occurrence of something that is created or instantiated, such as a database, or an object of a class in object-oriented programming.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    Some compilers will allow statics to be inlined, but then incorrectly create multiple instances of the inlined variable at run-time.

  9. A dungeon or other area that is duplicated for each player, or each party of players, that enters it, so that each player or party has a private copy of the area, isolated from other players.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    As long as the most difficult instance you've tried is Gnomeregan, you're never going to be credible talking about 'difficult encounters'.

    More examples (2)

    For example, when a team of five players enters the Sunken Temple instance in World of Warcraft, they will battle many monsters, but they will not encounter other players even though several teams of players may be experiencing the Sunken Temple at the same time.

    Beating a difficult instance becomes second nature after running through it…a few times, with good leaders knowing exactly what to do and how to co-ordinate member actions.

  10. An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    The instance is created for the group that enters it.

    As soon as the first player enters (spawns) a new instance, it appears that the loottable is somehow chosen.

    More examples (1)

    A castle on the eastern edge of the island spawns a new instance whenever a party of players enters.

  11. An independent server on a decentralised social network, such as Mastodon.

    Usage
    • Internet
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples
    More examples (2)

    To collect the messages, we select the mstdn.jp as the target instance. The mstdn.jp is one of the major Mastodon instances that has 123,331 users and connects to the 2415 other instances at 26 Feb 2017.

    In a poll I conducted on Mastodon, 42% of the 674 respondents said that they had reported something, whether it had been a spam account or hateful content, to their instance's moderator.

    Every Mastodon instance (neighborhood) has a code of conduct that you have to agree to before you join (move in).

Verb

  1. To mention as a case or example; to refer to.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Synonyms
    Examples

    Near-synonyms: adduce, cite

    The reason why so many fallacious opinions have passed into proverbs is owing to that carelessness which makes the individual instance the general rule.

    More examples (3)

    Mr. BENSON estimated the amount of guano on Jarvis' Island at 5,000,000 tons, and on Baker's Island at no less. He instanced experiments to show that it was in no way inferior to the best Peruvian article. Another company had lately been formed to bring guano from still other islands lately discovered.

    District Veterinary Surgeon Hutchinson's report from Newcastle is again worthy of notice, as instancing the difficulty of suppression of contagious disease under the disturbed conditions now existing in the northern part of the Colony.

    The poems which I have instanced are concrete and relatively glaring examples of the intangible difference which the change of language made in Rilke's visions .

  2. To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
  3. To duplicate (a dungeon or other area) for each player, or each party of players, that enters it, so that each player or party has a private copy of the area, isolated from other players.

    Examples

    In these games, such as World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online, most significant PvP happens inside instanced or player-capped areas.

    More examples (2)

    This is an improvement compared to contemporary MMORPG which combine zoning and instancing, whereas replication is currently not available for a combination with either of them. Zoning (Cai, Xavier, Turner, & Lee, 2002; Macedonia, Zyda,[…]

    Instanced encounters standard in today's MMORPGs, but the lack of instancing in early EverQuest meant that the guild (a team of players operating as a team) or group(s) of players who raced to and engaged a target first could claim the[…]

  4. To render (an object) as part of a batch, using the same geometry data.

    Usage
    • Transitive

Noun

  1. an occurrence of something

    Synonyms
    Examples

    it was a case of bad judgment

    another instance occurred yesterday

    More examples (1)

    but there is always the famous example of the Smiths

  2. an item of information that is typical of a class or group

    Broader terms
    Examples

    this patient provides a typical example of the syndrome

    there is an example on page 10

Verb

  1. clarify by giving an example of

Word forms
instancesenstaunceinstaunceinstancesinstancinginstancedinstanced

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