Sample

/ˈsɑːm.pəl/ · noun

Meaning

A part or snippet of something taken or presented for inspection, or shown as evidence of the quality of the whole; a specimen..

Definitions by Sense

1. A part or snippet of something taken or presented for inspection, or shown as evidence of the quality of the whole; a specimen.
2. (statistics) A subset or portion of a population that is systematically selected for measurement, observation, or questioning, with the objective of generating statistical information that accurately reflects the characteristics of the entire population.
3. (cooking) A small quantity of food for tasting, typically given away for free.
4. (business) A small piece of some goods, for determining quality, colour, etc., typically given away for free.
5. (music) A borrowing of easily recognised phases (or moments) from other music (or movies) in a recording.
6. (obsolete) Example; pattern.
7. (transitive) To take or to test a sample or samples of.
8. (transitive, signal processing) To reduce a continuous signal (such as a sound wave) to a discrete signal.

Example Sentences

a blood sample

He looked down into Glen Doone first, and sniffed as if he were smelling it, like a sample of goods from a wholesale house; and then he looked at the hills over yonder, and then he stared at me.

Then one day in May 2012, he picked up a free sample of a Vietnamese-language magazine based in New Jersey. In it, he saw an article about a career Navy officer named Kimberly Mitchell and her search into her past.

Large samples are generally more reliable than small samples due to having less variability.

It is interesting to find that, with the exception of a few imperfectly-observed South Sea Islanders, and whose actual numbers, if the measurements are correct, are very few, the English professional classes head the long list [in average height], and that the Anglo-Saxon race takes the chief place in it among the civilised communities, although it is possible it might stand second to the Scandinavian countries if a fair sample of their population were obtained.

It's a pretty grey outlook for England if these are a sample of the mothers of the coming generation.

Thus he concludes, and euery hardie knight / His ſample follow’d, and his brethren twaine, / The other Princes put on harneſſe light, / As footmen vſe.

[The King] Liu’d in Court / (Which rare it is to do) moſt prais’d, moſt lou’d, / A ſample to the yongeſt.

Synonyms for sample

Antonyms for sample

Related Words

Word Forms

• samples
• sampling
• sampled

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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