sample

See also SAMPLE

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æmpəl
• (RP) IPA: /ˈsɑːm.pəl/
• Rhymes: -ɑːmpəl
• (US) IPA: /ˈsæm.pəl/

Noun

sample (plural samples)

1. 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.

   "I design this but for a sample of what I hope more fully to discuss." -Woodward.

2. (statistics) A subset of a population selected for measurement, observation or questioning, to provide statistical information about the population.

   "...it is possible it [the Anglo-Saxon race] might stand second to the Scandinavian countries [in average height] if a fair sample of their population were obtained." Francis Galton et al. (1883). Final Report of the Anthropometric Committee, Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, p. 269.

3. (cooking) a small piece of food for tasting, typically given away for free
4. (business) a small piece of some goods, for determining quality, colour, etc., typically given away for free
5. (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.
6. (obsolete) Example; pattern.

   "Thus he concludes, and every hardy knight His sample followed." -Fairfax.

Synonyms

• specimen
• example

Translations

part taken for inspection

• Arabic: عينة (ar) (ʿayyína) f
• Baluchi: نمونہ (namuna)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 樣品 (cmn), 样品 (cmn) (yàngpǐn), 樣本 (cmn), 样本 (cmn) (yàngběn)

• Czech: vzorek (cs) m
• Dutch: monster (nl) n
• Esperanto: prov-ekzemplero (eo), specimeno (eo)
• Finnish: näyte (fi)
• French: échantillon (fr) m, extrait (fr) m, exemple (fr) m
• German: Probe (de) f, Muster (de) n
• Hindi: नमूना (hi) (namūna) m
• Hungarian: minta (hu)
• Italian: campione (it) f

• Japanese: 見本 (ja) (みほん, mihon), サンプル (ja) (sanpuru)
• Korean: 견본 (ko) (gyeonbon)
• Norwegian: prøve (no) m (1), sample (no) n (2), eksempel (no) n (3)
• Persian: نمونه (fa) (nemune, nomune)
• Portuguese: amostra (pt) f
• Romanian: mostră (ro) f
• Russian: образец (ru) (obrazéc) m, проба (ru) (próba) f, экземпляр (ru) (ekzɛmpljár) m
• Scottish Gaelic: sampall (gd) m
• Spanish: muestra (es) f, ejemplar (es) m
• Swedish: stickprov (sv), provbit (sv) c
• Tajik: намуна‍ (tg) (namuna)
• Turkish: örnek (tr)

statistics

• Swedish: stickprov (sv) n, urval (sv) n

cooking

• Swedish: smakbit (sv) c, provsmakning (sv) c, försmak (sv) c, smakprov (sv) n

business

• Swedish: prov (sv) n, varuprov (sv) n, gratisprov (sv) n

Verb

sample (third-person singular simple present samples, present participle sampling, simple past and past participle sampled)

1. (transitive) To make or show something similar to; to match.
2. (transitive) To take or to test a sample or samples of; as, to sample sugar, teas, wool, cloth.
3. (transitive, signal processing) To reduce a continuous signal (such as a sound wave) to a discrete signal.
4. (transitive) To reuse a portion of (an existing sound recording) in a new song.

Translations

to take or to test a sample or samples of

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 嘗試 (cmn), 尝试 (cmn) (chángshì), 試 (cmn), 试 (cmn) (shì)

• Czech: vzorkovat (cs)
• Finnish: ottaa näyte
• French: échantillonner (fr), goûter (fr) (food)
• German: probieren (de), kosten (de) (food)

• Haitian Creole: echantiyon
• Japanese: 試す (ja) (ためす, tamesu)
• Norwegian: ta prøve av
• Russian: пробовать (ru) (próbovatʹ) impf., попробовать (ru) (popróbovatʹ) pf.
• Spanish: samplear
• Thai: ลอง (th) (long)
• Turkish: örneklem (tr)

Anagrams

• maples