instance

IN-stuhns/ˈɪnstəns/

Pluralinstances

Verbinstances, instancing, instanced

12 meanings of instance

Practice

1
examplenouncountable
A case offered as an example or precedent; an illustrative example.
The lawyer cited an instance from a previous trial to support her argument.
His kindness was well known in town; one instance was the winter night he drove a stranded stranger two hours home.
UsageVery common in for instance, which means for example. You give or cite an instance of something.
Similarexample, case, illustration, precedent
Note
Older prose could use the word without an article, as something one gives. Robert Burton writes that Philostratus "gives instance in his friend Athenodorus," who, as Burton tells it, loved a woman at Corinth he had never seen. Where the "recurring case" meaning simply tallies occurrences, this one picks out a single case to illustrate or prove a point.
2
occurrencenouncountable
A particular occurrence of something that happens repeatedly in essentially the same way.
Investigators logged dozens of instances of unauthorized access.
Each instance of the glitch was reported to the support team.
UsageUsually an instance of something: instances of fraud. In some instances is a careful way to say sometimes.
Similarcase, occurrence, incident
Note
The everyday counting sense applies when the same kind of thing keeps happening: another instance of withdrawal, another instance of the general rule that human beings die. Each occurrence is essentially the same, so the word suits tallies and patterns rather than one striking example.
3
occasionnounusually singular
A particular occasion; the point or order in which something occurs.
In the first instance, complaints go to the department head.
The matter was settled by a court of first instance before any appeal.
UsageMostly in set phrases: in the first instance (first, before anything else is tried) and in this instance.
Similaroccasion, stage
Note
Matthew Hale's History of the Common Law of England, published in 1713, describes statutes drawn up "into the form of a law in the first instance" and only then assented to by both Houses and the King. Law keeps the same idea of order in court of first instance, the court that hears a case before any appeal.
4
give examplesverbtransitive
To give something as an example, or to offer examples, in support of a point or argument.
To support her claim, she instanced three recent court rulings.
Critics instance several films that broke box-office records.
UsageTakes the example directly, with no preposition: she instanced three rulings. Mostly in argument and reports; cite is more common.
Note
A farmers' club speaker "instanced experiments" in The New-York Times of 1858, and E. M. Butler's study of Rilke speaks of "the poems which I have instanced." Cite says much the same thing. Instance stresses that what is mentioned is put forward as an example.
5
computingnouncountable
A specific occurrence of something created or instantiated, such as a running database or an object of a class in programming.
The server spins up a fresh instance of the database for each client.
Calling the constructor creates a new instance of the class.
Similarobject
Note
Programming's word for one concrete realization of a template. The class is the pattern, each instance is a separate thing built from it, and the verb for making one is instantiate. The idea stretches to whole systems, such as a running database. Extra copies can be a bug: Bulka and Mayhew's Efficient C++ (1999) warns of compilers that wrongly create several instances of an inlined variable at run time.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Dov Bulka and David Mayhew wrote Efficient C++: Performance Programming Techniques. informit.com
It was first published on November 3, 1999; 2000 is its copyright year. informit.com
The book warns that some compilers incorrectly create multiple runtime instances of an inlined variable. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

6
social networknouncountable
One of the separately run servers that together make up a decentralized social network such as Mastodon.
He moved his account to an instance focused on photography.
Some instances block others over moderation disputes.
UsagePeople are on an instance and move to another one.
Similarserver
Note
On Mastodon and similar networks, the word names a home server. Mastodon for Dummies (2023) compares it to a neighborhood with a code of conduct you agree to before moving in. Each instance has its own moderators, who handle reports of spam or hateful content. Instances are separate yet connected. In 2017 mstdn.jp alone had 123,331 users and linked to 2,415 other instances.
7
video gamenouncountable
In a video game, a dungeon or other area copied for each player or party that enters, or one such private copy.
Our guild finally cleared the hardest instance in the expansion after a week of wipes.
Players queue up before entering the instance.
Similarcopy
Note
Players treat an instance as both a place and a challenge: you enter it, run it, beat it, and rank it by difficulty, as with World of Warcraft's Gnomeregan or Sunken Temple. The design promises privacy. A team of five fights monsters inside but never meets another team, even when several are in the same dungeon at once. The same word names each private copy, and the verb names the duplicating.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Gnomeregan is an instance in World of Warcraft. news.blizzard.com
Sunken Temple is a World of Warcraft instance in which a five-player team fights monsters. en.wiktionary.org
Separate parties can explore copies of the same dungeon without encountering or interfering with one another. en.wikipedia.org
8
nounobsoletecountable
Something that serves as a sign or proof that a thing is so, as a symptom points to an illness.
Note
What matters in this use is that the case proves something: it is evidence offered toward a conclusion. In The Comedy of Errors a man is judged mad "besides this present instance of his rage." The outburst counts as proof, alongside a mad tale told at dinner. Because the living word "case" is so close, the obsolete shade is easy to miss. Evidence or proof restores it.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Instance has an obsolete sense meaning evidence, proof or sign. en.wiktionary.org
The quoted wording occurs in The Comedy of Errors, spoken by the Courtesan as she concludes that Antipholus is mad. folger.edu
The Courtesan treats the present behavior and a story told at dinner as evidence of madness. folger.edu
9
requestnoununcountable
An urgent request or urging, now used chiefly in the formal phrase "at the instance of" (at someone's request or prompting).
At the instance of the queen, the prisoner was pardoned.
The inquiry was reopened at the instance of the victims' families.
UsageOutside the phrase at the instance of, use insistence, urgency or request for this idea.
Note
The urgency here comes straight from Latin: instantia meant presence, but also perseverance, earnestness and importunity, from instans, "urgent." The sense now lives almost entirely in one phrase, at the instance of (or at someone's instance), meaning at someone's request or prompting. Walter Scott's Waverley (1814) has at her instance, and William Howard Taft still writes in 1916 of a question settled at the instance of Madison.
10
nounobsoletecountable
Something pressing that drives a person to act; a motive.
The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
c. 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”
Note
Here urgency becomes the thing that urges: the pressure behind a choice. A line in Shakespeare's Hamlet weighs the motives for remarrying: "The instances that second marriage move / Are base respects of thrift, but none of love." The reasons are money, not affection. The sense stays close to the "urgent request" meaning and its Latin root. Readers now hear "cases" in the word, so motive or reason does this job better.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
Instance historically meant something urgent or a motive. en.wiktionary.org
William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. gutenberg.org
The quotation is exact and occurs in Hamlet; its speaker is the Player Queen. gutenberg.org
The quoted speaker attributes remarriage to financial considerations rather than love. gutenberg.org
The motive sense shares the Latin root of the urgent-request sense. en.wiktionary.org
11
verb
To duplicate a dungeon or other area for each player or party, so each has a private copy isolated from others.
12
verb
To render an object as part of a batch, drawing multiple copies from the same geometry data.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of instance apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Latin "instans" ("urgent") gave rise to "instantia," a noun for nearness and presence that could also mean perseverance, earnestness, or urgency; English borrowed the word through Middle French "instance." "Instant" shares the same root.