prototype

[ proh-tuh-tahyp ]

noun

1. the original or model on which something is based or formed.

   Synonyms: pattern

2. someone or something that serves to illustrate the typical qualities of a class; model; exemplar:

   She is the prototype of a student activist.

3. something analogous to another thing of a later period:

   a Renaissance prototype of our modern public housing.

4. Biology. an archetype; a primitive form regarded as the basis of a group.

verb (used with object)

, pro·to·typed, pro·to·typ·ing.

1. to create the prototype or an experimental model of:

   to prototype a solar-power car.

prototype

/ ˌprəʊtəˈtɪpɪk; ˈprəʊtəˌtaɪp /

noun

1. one of the first units manufactured of a product, which is tested so that the design can be changed if necessary before the product is manufactured commercially
2. a person or thing that serves as an example of a type
3. biology the ancestral or primitive form of a species or other group; an archetype

Derived Forms

• ˌprotoˈtypal, adjective

Other Words From

• pro·to·typ·i·cal [proh-t, uh, -, tip, -i-k, uh, l]; pro·to·typ·ic pro·to·typ·al [proh-t, uh, -, tip, -, uh, l], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of prototype¹

First recorded in 1595–1605; from New Latin prōtotypon, from Greek prōtótypon, noun use of neuter of prōtótypos “original”; proto-, type

Example Sentences

Meanwhile, SpaceX is constructing prototypes in Boca Chica, Texas, of its heavy-lift Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket.

From Fortune

A smaller prototype called Starhopper was flown as high as 490 feet last year.

From MIT Technology Review

Some such tests exist now, in prototype form, awaiting Food and Drug Administration approval and funding for mass distribution.

From Nautilus

Their prototype base, printed last October in Copenhagen, is 10 meters tall and was printed layer by layer, its two walls joined together by a sinuous line of concrete layered into the middle.

From Singularity Hub 

Most current bioprinted tissue prototypes are done inside the lab, where scientists can maintain more intricate control of how the tissue grows.

From Singularity Hub 

The FC-31 prototype was hidden except when it was flying, and not much detail was available.

From The Daily Beast

Two weeks later, Ed Logg, a programmer, had a working prototype that looked very, very good.

From The Daily Beast

McDonough helped create an implant prototype, but in the end, “nothing happened to it,” Williams said in court testimony.

From The Daily Beast

Haloid spent nearly 15 years and $75 million developing prototype copiers, even building a factory in 1954 far ahead of demand.

From The Daily Beast

Hull was frustrated that it took a long time and a lot of money to make small plastic prototype parts.

From The Daily Beast

Perhaps his almost perfectly spontaneous love of tiny flowers is already a considerable advance on his so-called prototype.

From Project Gutenberg

Black Hood saw that he would have to lie in order to protect his prototype, Kip Burland.

From Project Gutenberg

The first two Acts of Hills play proceed much after the manner of its prototype, with close parallels in language.

From Project Gutenberg

This Four Hundred has its prototype in all cities, and in some cities is known as the "fast set."

From Project Gutenberg

This causes us to feel that the prototype was "real," while the image is "imaginary."

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• mock-up
• model
• precursor