Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To represent (an abstract concept) by a concrete or tangible example.

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

  • verb find an instance of (a word or particular usage of a word)
  • verb represent by an instance

Etymologies

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

[Latin īnstantia, example; see instance + –ate.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin instāntia +‎ -ate.

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Examples

Comments

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  • I believe that this word was dredged up by a computer scientist perhaps in the 1980s. It does not occur in my 1980s Oxford English Dictionary. The whole business of programming jargon diffusing into popular culture needs to be investigated by some hypercaffeinated lexicographer...

    April 8, 2010

  • All the quotations in the OED second edition (1989) are from philosophy, going back to 1949.

    April 9, 2010