sample
- a small part of anything or one of a number, intended to show the quality, style, or nature of the whole; specimen.
- Statistics. a subset of a population: to study a sample of the total population.
- a sound of short duration, as a musical tone or a drumbeat, digitally stored in a synthesizer for playback.
- serving as a specimen: a sample piece of cloth.
- to take a sample or samples of; test or judge by a sample.
Origin of sample
Synonym study
Related Words for sample
case, fragment, pattern, specimen, piece, sampling, savor, examine, sip, inspect, individual, bite, morsel, illustration, sign, instance, portion, part, indication, representativeExamples from the Web for sample
Contemporary Examples of sample
The astronomers found that of the 93 quasars in the sample, 19 exhibited a measurable amount of polarization.
In West Africa at the present, an Ebola test can take four days or more and that is if the sample is not lost.
Sample reportedly told her “to drop the matter” and not discuss it with anybody else.
Virginia is one of the 29 states that requires arrestees to submit a DNA sample to be entered into CODIS.
Ever since Eve urged Adam to sample the forbidden fruit, men have been doing crazy things in the name of love.
Historical Examples of sample
They say the more yuh hurry the less yuh'll git along, an' that's a sample.
Chip, of the Flying UB. M. Bower
It may serve as a sample of his wool, for invariably it is home made.
Camps, Quarters and Casual PlacesArchibald Forbes
Get from a wall-paper dealer a sample of a frieze for a papered room.
Introductory American HistoryHenry Eldridge Bourne
A trial will convince anyone—and you may have a sample bottle free by mail.
The Mayflower, January, 1905Various
To this sample of a modern tribune I will add a specimen of a modern legislator.
Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, CompleteLewis Goldsmith
sample
- a small part of anything, intended as representative of the whole; specimen
- (as modifier)a sample bottle
- Also called: sampling statistics
- a set of individuals or items selected from a population for analysis to yield estimates of, or to test hypotheses about, parameters of the whole population. A biased sample is one in which the items selected share some property which influences their distribution, while a random sample is devised to avoid any such interference so that its distribution is affected only by, and so can be held to represent, that of the whole populationSee also matched sample
- (as modifier)sample distribution
- (tr) to take a sample or samples of
- music
- to take a short extract from (one record) and mix it into a different backing track
- to record (a sound) and feed it into a computerized synthesizer so that it can be reproduced at any pitch
Word Origin for sample
Word Origin and History for sample
c.1300, "something which confirms a proposition or statement," from Anglo-French saumple, a shortening of Old French essample, from Latin exemplum "a sample" (see example). Meaning "small quantity (of something) from which the general quality (of the whole) may be inferred" (usually in a commercial sense) is recorded from early 15c.; sense of "specimen for scientific sampling" is from 1878. As an adjective from 1820.
"to test by taking a sample," 1767, from sample (n.). Earlier "to be a match for" (1590s). Related: Sampled; sampling.
sample
In statistics, a group drawn from a larger population and used to estimate the characteristics of the whole population.