instance

Forms

1.An occasion; an order of occurrence.
2.A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example.
3.One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.
- 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.
- The organisations claim fraudsters are targeting properties belonging to both individuals and companies, in some instances using forged documents.
4.A specific occurrence of something that is created or instantiated, such as a database, or an object of a class in object-oriented programming.
- Some compilers will allow statics to be inlined, but then incorrectly create multiple instances of the inlined variable at run-time.

1.To mention as a case or example; to refer to.
- The reason why so many fallacious opinions have passed into proverbs is owing to that carelessness which makes the individual instance the general rule.
- 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.
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.
- In these games, such as World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online, most significant PvP happens inside instanced or player-capped areas.
4.To render (an object) as part of a batch, using the same geometry data.

Uncommon· #2988

Borrowed from Middle French instance

From Latin īnstantia (“a being near, presence, also perseverance, earnestness, importunity, urgency”)

From īnstāns (“urgent”); see instant.