Noun

(en noun)

Actual instance where a situation arises.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=29, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Unspontaneous combustion , passage=Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.}}

Noun

(en noun)

Something that is representative of all such things in a group.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=(Leo Hickman)

, volume=189, issue=7, page=26, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= How algorithms rule the world , passage=The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use.}}

Something that serves to illustrate or explain a rule.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan

, title= Wild Plants to the Rescue , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.

Something that serves as a pattern of behaviour to be imitated (a good example) or not to be imitated (a bad example).

* Bible, (w) xiii, 15

For I have given you an example , that ye should do as I have done to you.

* (John Milton)

I gave, thou sayest, the example ; I led the way.

* 1818 , (Mary Shelley), :

Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge,

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track.

A person punished as a warning to others.

* (William Shakespeare)

Hang him; he'll be made an example .

* Bible, x, 6

Now these things were our examples , to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

A parallel or closely similar case, especially when serving as a precedent or model.

* (William Shakespeare)

Such temperate order in so fierce a cause / Doth want example .

An instance (as a problem to be solved) serving to illustrate the rule or precept or to act as an exercise in the application of the rule.