instance
Americannoun
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instances
plural
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a case or occurrence of anything.
fresh instances of oppression.
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an example put forth in proof or illustration.
to cite a few instances.
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Also called instanced dungeon. (in an online multiplayer video game) a zone, as a dungeon, to which access is limited to a player or group of players entering simultaneously and working together: each instance is one copy of the zone in which the quests, enemies, items, events, etc., are staged exclusively for the player or group accessing it, without interference from other player characters in the larger online population of the game server.
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Law. the institution and prosecution of a case.
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Archaic. urgency in speech or action.
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Obsolete. an impelling motive.
verb (used with object)
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instances,
present (3rd person singular)
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instanced,
past participle, past
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instancing
present participle
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to cite as an instance or example.
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to exemplify by an instance.
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(in an online multiplayer video game) to design (a zone) as a set of identical copies, staged exclusively for the player or group accessing it, without interference from the larger population of the game server, thereby presenting key narrative elements or achievements in a controlled environment.
The game developers instanced a winter wonderland with special quests for the holiday event.
verb (used without object)
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instances,
present (3rd person singular)
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instanced,
past participle, past
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instancing
present participle
idioms
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at the instance of, at the urging or suggestion of.
He applied for the assistantship at the instance of his professor.
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for instance, as an example; for example.
If you were to go to Italy, for instance, you would get a different perspective on our culture.
noun
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a case or particular example
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for or as an example
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a specified stage in proceedings; step (in the phrases in the first, second, etc, instance )
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urgent request or demand (esp in the phrase at the instance of )
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logic
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an expression derived from another by instantiation
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See substitution
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archaic motive or reason
verb
Synonym Usage
See case 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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instancesimple
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instancessimple
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have instancedperfect
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has instancedperfect
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am instancingprogressive
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are instancingprogressive
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is instancingprogressive
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have been instancingperfect progressive
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has been instancingperfect progressive
Past
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instancedsimple
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had instancedperfect
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was instancingprogressive
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were instancingprogressive
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had been instancingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of instance
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English instaunce, from Middle French instance, from Medieval Latin īnstantia “case, example” ( Latin “presence, immediate applicability; earnestness, urgency”); see origin at instant, -ance
Explanation
An instance is a specific example or case of something. One instance of being chased by a growling dog can make a person spend his whole life being afraid of animals. It's common to find instance used in the expression "for instance," meaning "for example." Bright colors — for instance, pink, green, and blue — can cheer you up when you're feeling sad. Instance can also mean "occurrence." Several instances of cheating might be reported after a math test, for example. In the sixteenth century, the Medieval Latin word instantia meant "example to the contrary," leading to an early definition of instance as "single objection."
Vocabulary lists containing instance
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Commonly Confused Words, List 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For instance, you can drive an off-road vehicle at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, but off-roading in Yosemite could land you in jail.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
It lacks a resident navigation system but you can download apps—someone before me had downloaded YouTube, for instance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Oxford Economics, for instance, estimates the richest 20% of households are now buying more than half of all the new cars in the country.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
It will not apply if a player is down and the ball naturally goes out of play, for instance for a throw or goal-kick.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
The companies paid high dividends, and their shares were often costly to borrow: New Century, for instance, paid a 20 percent dividend, and its shares cost 12 percent a year to borrow.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
His analysis showed three-month average returns were negative 3.5% following the seven instances since 1965 that met Goepfert’s criteria.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
The row first erupted after another academic - self-defined "race realist" Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked from his Cambridge role in 2024 - said he found numerous instances of plagiarism in Prof Arday's work.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
In a new court document filed Monday, Apple described OpenAI's actions as "repeated instances of deliberate theft."
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Patients who took Orzeyful showed improvements in staying awake, had fewer instances in which they lost muscle control and slept better at night than those on placebo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
That was twice the number of Zork instances there’d been on Frobozz, so I knew the Sixers couldn’t barricade them all.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
As such, players can expect to wait longer than normal to log into game servers, visit new Endwalker specific areas, and experience instanced content-like duties.
From The Verge ● Nov. 30, 2021
The FX we’d used earlier were now composed of millions of these instanced pieces, and she was having a hard time loading them all because it took up so much memory.
From The Verge ● Jan. 30, 2019
World and all the other potential character builds and instanced stories in the offing.
From Time ● Sep. 11, 2012
If, an hour before, he had been asked what kind of life came nearest his ideal, perhaps he would have replied, "The literary life," and he would have instanced Vickars.
From Masterman and Son by W. J. (William James) Dawson
The next day I instanced a rather apt example.
From Jungle Peace by William Beebe
Curiously enough, though each chapter is intensely vivid, they become, through much instancing of the same unconquerable spirit, something monotonous, though never wearisome, in bulk.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, June 11, 1919 by Various
The one produced a hundred instances of the enlarging and quickening of men’s minds, the other replied by instancing vulgarities, distortions, wide acceptance of nonsense.
From Boon, The Mind of the Race, The Wild Asses of the Devil, and The Last Trump; Being a First Selection from the Literary Remains of George Boon, Appropriate to the Times by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
On this occasion the admiral was at great pains to explain the nature of this phenomenon to the people by instancing the example of Aetna and several other known volcanoes.
From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 08 The Later Renaissance: from Gutenberg to the Reformation by Charles F. (Charles Francis) Horne
Captain Cathie, in one of his bluffer moments, bluntly suggested wholesale marriage as a preventive of irregularities, and the starting of a new race on that basis, instancing the Pitcairners as typical resultants.
From White Fire by John Oxenham
And after instancing a number of these stories "which deserve the gravest condemnation," he enjoins that God must be represented as he is in reality.
From Christianity and Greek Philosophy or, the relation between spontaneous and reflective thought in Greece and the positive teaching of Christ and His Apostles by B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Cocker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
