instantiate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of instantiate
First recorded in 1945–50; from Medieval Latin īnstantia “example supporting a general proposition,” from Latin īnstanti-, taken as a combining form of īnstantia “presence, urgency, urgent supplication, steadfastness”; see origin at instance, -ate 1
Explanation
When you provide a specific example to illustrate an idea, you instantiate it. You say you believe in unicorns, but so far you haven't been able to instantiate that belief. Philosophers often use this term, which can be most simply understood as "represent by an instance." A multi-millionaire may choose to instantiate their wealth by driving an extremely expensive car and wearing $500 shoes. A photojournalist might attempt to instantiate the dangers of a particular intersection by taking photos of car accidents that occur there. Whenever you clarify or explain a concept with a real-world example of it, you instantiate that idea.
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:
Yet, in this dance between self-preservation and conformity, they instantiate the stereotypes they’re trying to escape.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2023
What sorts of catastrophes would instantiate an existential risk?
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2022
That might have made Jim Crow harder to instantiate.
From Slate ● Jan. 14, 2021
Here, taxidermy becomes a way to instantiate our relationship to bodies—both our own and those of others.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 21, 2019
It consists of billions of computers linked together using optical fibers and copper cables that rapidly instantiate specific connections using ultrafast communication protocols.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 1, 2014
But that society would be providing the computer servers on which the world as we know it is instantiated.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2022
And that’s that at every possible moment of time, every possible choice, every possible observable, is instantiated.
From The Verge ● Dec. 17, 2021
But personality has to be instantiated in the brain, he argued: “It's not in the knee!”
From Salon ● Nov. 9, 2019
I think we have been, along with many others, leading the outcry against the violation of these values, these American values, really, that are instantiated in the norms.
From Slate ● May 2, 2017
Expectations of efficiency are instantiated, within a given scale of human activity, in market quantities and qualities.
From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Nadin, Mihai
All things being equal, realizing, delivering, instantiating, imagining the significant ideas of the next one hundred or two hundred years will be – objectively – more difficult than those of the past.
From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2021
They are different from graffiti, which to my eyes is egocentric and monotone, mostly instantiating the will of the tagger over and over again.
From New York Times ● Aug. 6, 2020
When we set the rules for membership on scientific advisory boards and suggest that one form of conflict might be more or less important than another, we’re instantiating values.
From Slate ● May 16, 2017
“The Virgin Suicides” does a wonderful job both exploring and instantiating this discomfort, but for me, the most powerful articulation of it is the Steven Millhauser story, “The Sisterhood of the Night.”
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2017
In 1968, in a showroom decorated like a 19-century saloon, Krause unveiled an appliance instantiating an enduring fetish of the 21.
From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2013
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.
