Instant vs Instance - What's the difference?
instant | instance | Related terms |
A very short period of time; a moment.
* She paused for only an instant , which was just enough time for John to change the subject.
A single, usually precise, point in time.
* The instant the alarm went off, he fled the building.
An instant beverage or food, especially instant coffee.
A day of the current month (abbreviated as : )
* In response to your letter of the twenty-first instant...
(dated) Impending; imminent.
* Prior
(dated) Urgent; pressing; acute.
* Bible, Rom. xii. 12
* Carlyle
Occurring immediately; immediate; present.
* Fuller
* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
, title=
, chapter=2 Lasting for a short moment; momentary; short-lived.
Very quickly and easily prepared.
Of the current month (abbreviation inst.).
* “I refer to your letter of the 16th inst. in regard to traffic disruption”
(poetic) At once; immediately.
* 1819 , Lord Byron, Don Juan , I.182:
(obsolete) Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence.
*, II.8:
* Sir Walter Scott
(obsolete) A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.
(obsolete) That which is urgent; motive.
* Shakespeare
Occasion; order of occurrence.
* Sir M. Hale
A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example.
* Atterbury
*:
One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.
*
*
* 2010 , The Guardian , 11 Oct 2010:
(obsolete) A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something).
* c. 1594 , William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors :
(computing) In object-oriented programming: a created object, one that has had memory allocated for local data storage; an instantiation of a class.
(massively multiplayer online games) 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.
* 2006 September 1, "Dan" (username), "
* 2010 , , Online Multiplayer Games , Morgan & Claypool, ISBN 9781608451425, page 26:
* 2012 , anonymous gamer quoted in Andrew Ee & Hichang Cho, "
(massively multiplayer online games) An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.
* 2005 January 11, Patrick B., "
* 2005 December 6, "Rene" (username), "
* 2010 , Anthony Steed & Manuel Fradinho Oliveira, Networked Graphics: Building Networked Games and Virtual Environments , Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-12-374423-4, page 398:
To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite; as, to instance a fact.
* 1946 , E. M. Butler, Rainer Maria Rilke ,
To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.
Instance is a related term of instant.
As nouns the difference between instant and instance
is that instant is a very short period of time; a moment while instance is urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence.As an adjective instant
is impending; imminent.As an adverb instant
is at once; immediately.As a verb instance is
to mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite; as, to instance a fact.instant
English
Alternative forms
* instaunt (obsolete)Etymology 1
From (etyl) . More at (l), (l).Noun
(en noun)Etymology 2
From (etyl) and (etyl) instant, from (etyl) ; see state.Adjective
(-)- Impending death is thine, and instant doom.
- Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.
- I am beginning to be very instant for some sort of occupation.
- The instant time is always the fittest time.
citation, passage=No one, however, would have anything to do with him, as Mr. Keeson's orders in those respects were very strict ; he had often threatened any one of his employés with instant dismissal if he found him in company with one of these touts.}}
- instant coffee
Derived terms
* instantize, instantise * instantly * instant replayAdverb
(-)- He left the room for his relinquished sword, / And Julia instant to the closet flew.
Statistics
* ----instance
English
Alternative forms
* enstance, enstaunce, instaunce (all obsolete)Noun
(en noun)- I know one very well alied, to whom, at the instance of a brother of his.
- undertook at her instance to restore them.
- It sends some precious instance of itself/ After the thing it loves. Hamlet IV. v. ca. 1602
- The instances that second marriage move / Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
- These seem as if, in the time of Edward I., they were drawn up into the form of a law, in the first instance .
- most remarkable instances of suffering
- sometimes we love those that are absent, saith Philostratus, and gives instance in his friend Athenodorus, that loved a maid at Corinth whom he never saw
- The organisations claim fraudsters are targeting properties belonging to both individuals and companies, in some instances using forged documents.
- The reason that I gather he is mad, Besides this present instance of his rage, Is a mad tale he told to day at dinner [...].
Re: DPS Classes: Why should I heal you?", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:
- As long as the most difficult instance you've tried is Gnomeregan, you're never going to be credible talking about 'difficult encounters'.
- For example, when a team of five players enters the Sunken Temple instance in World of Warcraft , they will battle many monsters, but they will not encounter other players even though several teams of players may be experiencing the Sunken Temple at the same time.
What Makes an MMORPG Leader? A Social Cognitive Theory-Based Approach to Understanding the Formation of Leadership Capabilities in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games", Eludamos , volume 6, page 31:
- Beating a difficult instance becomes second nature after running through it…a few times, with good leaders knowing exactly what to do and how to co-ordinate member actions.
Re: Instance dungeons", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:
- The instance is created for the group that enters it.
Re: Does group leader affect drops?", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:
- As soon as the first player enters (spawns) a new instance , it appears that the loottable is somehow chosen.
- A castle on the eastern edge of the island spawns a new instance whenever a party of players enters.
Derived terms
* at the instance of * in the first instance * in this instance * for instanceSee also
* (computing) closure, class, objectVerb
(instanc)p. 404
- The poems which I have instanced are concrete and relatively glaring examples of the intangible difference which the change of language made in Rilke's visions .
