sample

1. 1.

   a small part of something intended as representative of the whole

   Broaderexample

   Narrowercouponcross sectiongrab samplerandom sampletasting
2. 2.

   items selected at random from a population and used to test hypotheses about the population

   Synonymssample distributionsampling

   Broaderdistribution

   Narroweracceptance samplingrandom samplestratified sample

   statistics

3. 3.

   all or part of a natural object that is collected and preserved as an example of its class

   Broadernatural object

   Narrowerspecimencore

1. 1.

   take a sample of

   “Try these new crackers”

   “Sample the regional dishes”

   Synonymstrytry outtaste

   Broaderconsume

   Narrowerdegust

Other forms of sample

plural

samples·

past tense

sampled·

present participle

sampling·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about sample

What does sample mean?

sample means "a small part of something intended as representative of the whole". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in sample?

sample has 2 syllables: sam-ple. The stress falls on "sam". In IPA it is /ˈsæmpəl/.

What is another word for sample?

Close synonyms include sample distribution, sampling, try, try out, taste. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is sample a common word?

sample is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.