sample

American  

[sam-puhl, sahm-] / ˈsæm pəl, ˈsɑm- /

noun

1. a small part of anything or one of a number, intended to show the quality, style, or nature of the whole; specimen.

2. Statistics. a subset of a population.

   to study a sample of the total population.

3. a sound of short duration, as a musical tone or a drumbeat, digitally stored in a synthesizer for playback.

---

adjective

1. serving as a specimen.

   a sample piece of cloth.

verb (used with object)

sampled, sampling

1. to take a sample or samples of; test or judge by a sample.

sample British  

/ ˈsɑːmpəl /

noun

1. 1. a small part of anything, intended as representative of the whole; specimen

   2. ( as modifier )

      a sample bottle

2. Also called: sampling.  statistics

   1. 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 population See also matched sample

   2. ( as modifier )

      sample distribution

---

verb

1. (tr) to take a sample or samples of

2. music

   1. to take a short extract from (one record) and mix it into a different backing track

   2. to record (a sound) and feed it into a computerized synthesizer so that it can be reproduced at any pitch

sample Cultural  

1. In statistics, a group drawn from a larger population and used to estimate the characteristics of the whole population.

---

Related Words

See example.

Discover More

Opinion polls use small groups of people, often selected at random, as a sample of the opinions of the general public.

Other Word Forms

• intersample noun
• missample verb
• resample verb (used with object)

Etymology

Origin of sample

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English word from Old French word essample. See example

Example Sentences

They are collecting additional blood samples from psychiatric patients to study how different drug concentrations affect organoid activity.

From Science Daily

Collecting direct samples of the ice would require sending a robotic mission to the region.

From Science Daily

To answer that question, the team analyzed blood samples from vaccinated individuals, including some who developed myocarditis.

From Science Daily

Together, these datasets allowed scientists to analyze the X-ray and ultraviolet emissions of an exceptionally large sample of quasars.

From Science Daily

For the first time in nearly 50 years, Moon rock samples arrived in the UK, on loan from China.

From BBC

Related Words

• case
• fragment
• pattern
• piece
• sampling
• specimen