instance

English Online Dictionary. What means instance‎? What does instance mean?

English

Alternative forms

• enstance, enstaunce, instaunce (all obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French instance, from Latin īnstantia (“a being near, presence, also perseverance, earnestness, importunity, urgency”), from īnstāns (“urgent”); see instant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪnstəns/

Noun

instance (countable and uncountable, plural instances)

1. (obsolete) Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence. [14th–19th c.]
2. (obsolete) A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.
3. (obsolete) That which is urgent; motive.
4. (obsolete) A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something). [16th–18th c.]
5. Occasion; order of occurrence.
6. A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example. [from 16th c.]
   • 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.
8. (computing) A specific occurrence of something that is created or instantiated, such as a database, or an object of a class in object-oriented programming. [from 20th c.]
9. (massively multiplayer online games) 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.
   • 2012, anonymous gamer quoted in Andrew Ee & Hichang Cho, "What Makes an MMORPG Leader? A Social Cognitive Theory-Based Approach to Understanding the Formation of Leadership Capabilities in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games", Eludamos, volume 6, page 31:

     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. (massively multiplayer online games) An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.
11. (Internet) An independent server on a decentralised social network, such as Mastodon.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• (computing) closure, class, object

Verb

instance (third-person singular simple present instances, present participle instancing, simple past and past participle instanced)

1. (transitive) To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite
2. (intransitive) To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.
3. (massively multiplayer online games) 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.
4. (transitive, computer graphics) To render (an object) as part of a batch, using the same geometry data.

References

• “instance”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “instance”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• ancients, canniest, cantines, catenins, enactins, insectan, tenascin

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃s.tɑ̃s/
• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Latin īnstantia.

Noun

instance f (plural instances)

1. (often in the plural) urgent demand, insistence, plea
2. authority, forum, agency, body
3. (law) legal proceedings, prosecution process
4. (object-oriented programming) instance

Derived terms

Etymology 2

A derivative of etymology 1, but reborrowed from English.

Noun

instance f (plural instances)

1. (computing) instance

Further reading

• “instance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• cantines