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.
adjective
serving as a specimen: a sample piece of cloth.
verb (used with object),sam·pled,sam·pling.
to take a sample or samples of; test or judge by a sample.
Origin of sample
First recorded in 1250–1300;Middle English word from Old French word essample. See example
Related formsin·ter·sam·ple, noun, adjective, verb (used with object),in·ter·sam·pled,in·ter·sam·pling.mis·sam·ple, verb,mis·sam·pled,mis·sam·pling.re·sam·ple, verb (used with object),re·sam·pled,re·sam·pling.
the process of taking a short extract from (a record) and mixing it into a different backing track
a process in which a continuous electrical signal is approximately represented by a series of discrete values, usually regularly spaced
sample
noun
a small part of anything, intended as representative of the whole; specimen
(as modifier)a sample bottle
Also called: samplingstatistics
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
verb
(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
C13: from Old French essample, from Latin exemplumexample
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.
sample
v.
"to test by taking a sample," 1767, from sample (n.). Earlier "to be a match for" (1590s). Related: Sampled; sampling.
