Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One that is worthy of imitation; a perfect example or model. synonym: ideal.
  • noun One that is typical or representative; an example.
  • noun A copy, as of a book.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Serving as an example; exemplary.
  • Conveying a warning; fitted to warn or deter.
  • Pertaining or relating to an example or to examples; containing or constituting an example.
  • noun A model, original, or pattern to be copied or imitated; the idea or image of a thing formed in the mind; an archetype.
  • noun A specimen; a copy, especially a copy of a book or writing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A model, original, or pattern, to be copied or imitated; a specimen; sometimes; an ideal model or type, as that which an artist conceives.
  • noun obsolete A copy of a book or writing.
  • adjective obsolete Exemplary.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Something fit to be imitated; see ideal and model.
  • noun Something typical or representative of a class; see example.
  • noun A pattern after which others should be made; see archetype.
  • noun A well known usage of a scientific theory.
  • noun A handwritten manuscript used by a scribe to make a handwritten copy; the original copy of what gets multiply reproduced in a copy machine.
  • adjective obsolete Exemplary.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun something to be imitated

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English exemplere, from Late Latin exemplārium, from Latin exemplum, example; see example.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin exemplum, but respelled according to Latin exemplar.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French exemplaire, and its source, Latin exemplāris.

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Examples

  • For those who would like to compare these texts to that of a medieval Dominican Breviary, one is available in digital form here, showing an exemplar from the Czech Republic.

    Fifteenth-Century Dominican Breviary in Digital Form 2009

  • At one extreme, Carver is classified as the exemplar of minimalism.

    Raymond Carver Carol Sklenicka 2009

  • A modern exemplar is Peter Birks, who was the leading unjust enrichment (restitution) scholar in the English speaking world (as well as being a leading scholar on civil law and roman law).

    Balkinization 2007

  • And since its primary exemplar is a male rather than a female subject, those implications would seem impossible to ignore.

    The State of Things: Olaudah Equiano and the Volatile Politics of Heterocosmic Desire 2006

  • The next post will be on the second type of similarity-based approach, which are usually called exemplar theories.

    Concepts II: Prototypes Chris 2005

  • The third assumption, which follows from the first, is that every time we attend to a stimulus, we encode it, and thus every attended instance of a stimulus is encoded this is sometimes called the exemplar theory of memory, because it states that all attended exemplars are encoded.

    The Lazy Brain Chris 2004

  • The third assumption, which follows from the first, is that every time we attend to a stimulus, we encode it, and thus every attended instance of a stimulus is encoded this is sometimes called the exemplar theory of memory, because it states that all attended exemplars are encoded.

    Archive 2004-12-01 Chris 2004

  • 3. The Ramayana is known as an exemplar of devotion in partnership and a manual on how to be a noble leader.

    Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar Jeffrey Armstrong 2010

  • 3. The Ramayana is known as an exemplar of devotion in partnership and a manual on how to be a noble leader.

    Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar Jeffrey Armstrong 2010

  • 3. The Ramayana is known as an exemplar of devotion in partnership and a manual on how to be a noble leader.

    Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar Jeffrey Armstrong 2010

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