sample

«sample» in Mova's school dictionary: a small amount or part of something that shows what the… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a sample, samples); verb (sample, samples, sampled, sampling)

meaning for a pupil

1) A sample is a small amount or part of something that shows what the rest is like. tree →

2) A free sample is a small amount of a product given to try. tree →

3) In science and maths, a sample is a group chosen from a larger group to be tested or studied. tree →

4) To sample means to try or taste a little of something. tree →

5) In music, a sample is a short piece of sound reused in a new song. tree →

sense in the lessons

Science: take a soil, water or leaf sample; doctors take blood samples. Maths and statistics: survey a sample of pupils to learn about the whole school — a bigger, random sample is fairer. Everyday life: free samples in shops; sample food at a market. Phrases: a sample of, free sample, blood sample, take a sample, sample size.

examples

• We took a sample of pond water to look at under the microscope. tree →
• The shop gave out free samples of cheese. tree →
• The nurse took a blood sample. tree →
• We asked a sample of 30 pupils about their favourite fruit. tree →
• Would you like to sample the soup? tree →
• Here is a sample of my best handwriting. tree →
• A bigger sample gives a more reliable result. tree →
• Nobody doubted but the Fairy gave herein a sample of her art, that the Princess, while she continued sleeping, might have nothing to fear from any curious people. tree →

note

Countable: a sample, samples. Verb past: sampled. In maths: results from a sample are only an estimate for the whole group — if 10 of 30 pupils in the sample like apples, about one third of the school might. A sample that is too small or not random can mislead.

In the corpora

• Japanese probes brought back dust from the asteroids Itokawa and Ryugu, and NASA's OSIRIS-REx returned samples from Bennu in 2023.
• Your friends are not a fair sample of everyone; neither is asking only people on your side.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «sample» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.