Definitions

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

  • noun A portion, piece, or segment that is representative of a whole.
  • noun A specimen taken for analysis or testing.
  • noun Statistics A set of data or elements drawn from a larger population and analyzed to estimate the characteristics of that population.
  • noun A usually digitized audio segment taken from an original recording and inserted, often repetitively, in a new recording.
  • noun One of a series of pieces of data representing a digitized approximation of an analog signal.
  • transitive verb To take a sample of, especially to test or examine by a sample.
  • transitive verb To use or incorporate (an audio segment of an original recording) in a new recording.
  • transitive verb To represent the value of (an analog signal) at a particular point in time by means of a piece of digital data.
  • adjective Serving as a representative or example.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To place side by side with something else closely similar, for the purpose of comparison or illustration.
  • To match; imitate; follow the pattern or method of.
  • To select, or take at random, a sample or specimen of; hence, to try or test by examining or using a specimen or sample: as, to sample sugar or grain; to sample wine.
  • noun Anything selected as a model for imitation; a pattern; an example; an instance.
  • noun A part of anything taken at random out of a large quantity and presented for inspection or intended to be shown as evidence of the quality of the whole; a representative specimen: as, a sample of cloth, of wheat, of spirits, of wines, etc.
  • noun Synonyms Specimen, Sample. See specimen.

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

  • transitive verb To make or show something similar to; to match.
  • transitive verb To take or to test a sample or samples of.
  • noun obsolete Example; pattern.
  • noun A part of anything presented for inspection, or shown as evidence of the quality of the whole; a specimen.

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

  • noun A part of anything taken or presented for inspection, or shown as evidence of the quality of the whole; a specimen; as, goods are often purchased by samples.
  • noun statistics A subset of a population selected for measurement, observation or questionicommeng, to provide statistical information about the population.
  • noun cooking a small piece of food for tasting, typically given away for free
  • noun business a small piece of some goods, for determining quality, colour, etc., typically given away for free
  • noun music Gratuitous borrowing of easily recognised phases (or moments) from other music (or movies) in a recording, used to emphasize a particular point by implying a certain context.
  • noun obsolete Example; pattern.
  • verb transitive To make or show something similar to; to match.
  • verb transitive To take or to test a sample or samples of; as, to sample sugar, teas, wool, cloth.
  • verb transitive, signal processing To reduce a continuous signal (such as a sound wave) to a discrete signal.
  • verb transitive To reuse a portion of (an existing sound recording) in a new song.

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

  • verb take a sample of
  • noun all or part of a natural object that is collected and preserved as an example of its class
  • noun a small part of something intended as representative of the whole
  • noun items selected at random from a population and used to test hypotheses about the population

Etymologies

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

[Partly Middle English (from Anglo-Norman) and partly short for Middle English ensample (from Anglo-Norman), both from Latin exemplum; see example.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English sample, asaumple, Old French essample, example, from Latin exemplum.

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Examples

  • Link to a personal blog or other online writing sample is preferred over a hard copy writing sample**

    craigslist s.f. bayarea | jobs search for "blog" 2010

  • TCO you are looking at sources who are using the term sample error the way bender is, but you are just not seeing it.

    More Bender on Hurricane Counts « Climate Audit 2006

  • On the 217 page Gray reference: Please cite the specific page that supports your restrictive or even non-restrictive use of the term sample error.

    More Bender on Hurricane Counts « Climate Audit 2006

  • I also welcome the other stats jocks on this board to do so and to back me up on the usage of the term sample error in that article.

    More Bender on Hurricane Counts « Climate Audit 2006

  • “Giving people a sample is a great way to hook people and encourage them to buy more,” said Suzanne Murphy, group publisher of Scholastic Trade Publishing, which offered free downloads of “Suite Scarlett,” a young-adult novel by Maureen Johnson, for three weeks in the hopes of building buzz for the next book in the series, “Scarlett Fever,” out in hardcover on Feb. 1.

    Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Snippets 2010

  • Our best estimate of the number of Democrats in the voting age population as a whole indicates that the sample is about 8-10 points more Democratic than the population as a whole.

    CNN Poll: Double-digit post-speech jump for Obama plan 2009

  • When the sample is added, it flows -- either by the simple force of gravity or drawn by an electric charge -- horizontally across the line of holes in the metal.

    Television 2010

  • When the sample is added, it flows -- either by the simple force of gravity or drawn by an electric charge -- horizontally across the line of holes in the metal.

    tingilinde: 2008

  • That combo in this sample is the last 6 years of Clinton.

    Archive 2008-09-01 2008

  • That combo in this sample is the last 6 years of Clinton.

    Bad economics makes good editorials 2008

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