English Explanatory Dictionary

sample

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A part or snippet of something taken or presented for inspection, or shown as evidence of the quality of the whole; a specimen.
  2. A subset or portion of a population that is systematically selected for measurement, observation, or questioning, with the objective of generating statistical information that accurately reflects the characteristics of the entire population.
  3. A small quantity of food for tasting, typically given away for free.
  4. A small piece of some goods, for determining quality, colour, etc., typically given away for free.
  5. A borrowing of easily recognised phases (or moments) from other music (or movies) in a recording.
  6. Example; pattern.
verb
  1. To take or to test a sample or samples of.
  2. To reduce a continuous signal (such as a sound wave) to a discrete signal.
  3. To reuse a portion of (an existing sound recording) in a new piece of music.
  4. To make or show something similar to a sample.
noun
  1. Initialism of signs and symptoms, allergies, medications, past pertinent history, last oral intake, events leading to present illness.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/ˈsɑːm.pəl/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sample.wav /ˈsam.pəl/ /ˈsæm.pəl/ [ˈsɛəm.pəɫ] /ˈsæːm.pəl/ /ˈsaːm.pəl/ [ˈsäːmpɯ]

Word forms

sample samples sampling sampled

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English saumple, sample, from Old French essample (“example”), from Latin exemplum. Doublet of example and exemplum.

Synonyms

example specimen

Derived words

biosample downsample multisample oversample serosample blood sample convenience sample core sample eigensample engineering sample grab sample intersample intrasample kilosample macrosample megasample metasample microsample pseudosample random sample sampladelic sample function sample implementation sample line sampleman sample market sample mean samplepack sample path sample point sample room sample scale sampleset sample space samplet samplewise samplist shot sample snowball sample subsample supersample autosample nonsampled resample samplable sampler undersample undersampled unsampled upsample
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