Other forms: examples
An example is one case shown so that people understand the whole kind. Give an example, for example, a good example of the problem.
For example is the standard connector and is abbreviated e.g. in writing, from Latin exempli gratia. Note the difference from i.e., which means that is and introduces a restatement rather than an instance — mixing them up is one of the most common errors in formal English. Set an example means to behave in a way others should copy, and make an example of somebody means to punish them publicly as a warning, which is nearly the opposite.
1nounexampleOne case used to show what a whole kind is like.
“Give me an example of what you mean.”
synonyms: instance, case, illustration
2nounbehaviourSomebody whose behaviour others should copy.
“She sets an example the rest of them ignore.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
example is an instance.
Latin exemplum meant a sample taken out — ex-, out, plus emere, to take, the same verb behind exempt and redeem. An example is literally something taken out of a larger set to be looked at.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁em-
Latin
exemplum — sample, pattern, specimen, copy for imitation, etc.
Old French
example
Middle English
example
English, today
example
From Middle English example, exaumple, from Old French example, essaumple, from Latin exemplum (“sample, pattern, specimen, copy for imitation, etc.”) literally “what is taken out”; see exempt. a doublet of exemplum and sample. Displaced native forebisne, from forebȳsn; and bisne, from bȳsn (modern bizen).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA