instance

Meanings

1. Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence.
2. A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.
3. That which is urgent; motive.
4. A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something).
5. An occasion; an order of occurrence.
6. A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example.
7. One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.
8. A specific occurrence of something that is created or instantiated, such as a database, or an object of a class in object-oriented programming.
9. A dungeon or other area that is duplicated for each player, or each party of players, that enters it, so that each player or party has a private copy of the area, isolated from other players.
10. An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.
11. An independent server on a decentralised social network, such as Mastodon.

1. To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite
2. To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.
3. To duplicate (a dungeon or other area) for each player, or each party of players, that enters it, so that each player or party has a private copy of the area, isolated from other players.
4. To render (an object) as part of a batch, using the same geometry data.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French instance, from Latin īnstantia (“a being near, presence, also perseverance, earnestness, importunity, urgency”), from īnstāns (“urgent”); see instant.