English

Alternative forms

• enstance, enstaunce, instaunce (all obsolete)

Noun

instance ‎(plural instances)

1. (obsolete) Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence. [14th-19th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.8:

     I know one very well alied, to whom, at the instance of a brother of his […], I spake to that purpose […].

   • Sir Walter Scott

     […] undertook at her instance to restore them.

2. (obsolete) A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.

   It sends some precious instance of itself/ After the thing it loves. Hamlet IV. v. ca. 1602

3. (obsolete) That which is urgent; motive.
   • Shakespeare

     The instances that second marriage move / Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.

4. Occasion; order of occurrence.
   • Sir M. Hale

     These seem as if, in the time of Edward I., they were drawn up into the form of a law, in the first instance.

5. A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example. [from 16th c.]
   • Atterbury

     most remarkable instances of suffering

   • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy:

     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 […]

6. One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.
   • 2006, Robert Spaemann, Persons: The Difference Between 'someone' and 'something', page 115:

     One's own death is an 'accidental' event, simply another instance of the general rule that human beings die.

   • 2010, Kenneth Anderson, How to Change Your Drinking: a Harm Reduction Guide to Alcohol, page 59:

     If you choose to drink again the best way to avoid another instance of withdrawal is to avoid drinking two days in a row.

   • 2010, The Guardian, 11 Oct 2010:

     The organisations claim fraudsters are targeting properties belonging to both individuals and companies, in some instances using forged documents.

7. (obsolete) A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something). [16th-18th c.]
   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors:

     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 [...].

8. (computing) In object-oriented programming: a created object, one that has had memory allocated for local data storage; an instantiation of a class. [from 20th c.]
9. (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), "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'.

   • 2010, William Sims Bainbridge, Online Multiplayer Games, Morgan & Claypool, ISBN 9781608451425, page 26:

     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.

   • 2012, anonymous gamer quoted in Andrew Ee & Hichang Cho, "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.

10. (massively multiplayer online games) An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.
    • 2005 January 11, Patrick B., "Re: Instance dungeons", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:

      The instance is created for the group that enters it.

    • 2005 December 6, "Rene" (username), "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.

    • 2010, Anthony Steed & Manuel Fradinho Oliveira, Networked Graphics: Building Networked Games and Virtual Environments, Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-12-374423-4, page 398:

      A castle on the eastern edge of the island spawns a new instance whenever a party of players enters.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• (computing) closure, class, object

Verb

instance ‎(third-person singular simple present instances, present participle instancing, simple past and past participle instanced)

1. (transitive) To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite; as, to instance a fact.
   • 1946, E. M. Butler, Rainer Maria Rilke, 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 .

2. (intransitive) To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.

References

• instance in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• instance in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Statistics

Anagrams

• ancients, canniest, catenins, insectan, tenascin

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃s.tɑ̃s/

Etymology 1

From Latin instantia

Noun

instance f ‎(plural instances)

1. (often in the plural) urgent demand, insistence, plea
2. authority, forum, agency, body
3. (law) legal proceedings, prosecution process
4. (object-oriented programming) instance

Derived terms

• en instance
• tribunal d'instance
• première instance

Etymology 2

A derivative of etymology 1, but reborrowed from English.

Noun

instance f ‎(plural instances)

1. (computing) instance

Anagrams

• cantines