instance

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

• noun An example that is cited to prove or invalidate a contention or illustrate a point. synonym: example.
• noun A case or an occurrence.
• noun A step in a process or series of events.
• noun A suggestion or request.
• noun Archaic Urgent solicitation or entreaty.
• transitive verb To offer as an example; cite.
• transitive verb To demonstrate or show by an example; exemplify.
• idiom (for instance) As an example; for example.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To cite as an instance; adduce in illustration or confirmation; mention as an example.
• To furnish an instance or example of; exemplify; manifest.
• To take or receive example or examples; give or find illustration: followed by in.
• noun Presence; present time.
• noun A happening or occurring; occurrence; occasion: as, it was correct in the first instance; a court of first instance (that is, of primary jurisdiction).
• noun A case occurring; a case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an example; originally, a case offered to disprove a universal assertion: as, this has happened in three instances.
• noun Hence Evidence; proof; token.
• noun An impelling motive; influence; cause.
• noun The process of a suit.
• noun In Scots law, that which may be insisted on at one diet or course of probation.
• noun The act or state of being instant or urgent; insistence; solicitation; urgency.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act or quality of being instant or pressing; urgency; solicitation; application; suggestion; motion.
• noun obsolete That which is instant or urgent; motive.
• noun Occasion; order of occurrence.
• noun That which offers itself or is offered as an illustrative case; something cited in proof or exemplification; a case occurring; an example.
• noun A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.
• noun those which proceed at the solicitation of some party.
• noun the court by which a case is first tried.
• noun by way of example or illustration; for example.
• noun (Law) the Court of Admiralty acting within its ordinary jurisdiction, as distinguished from its action as a prize court.
• intransitive verb obsolete To give an example.
• transitive verb To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.
• noun 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.
• noun An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.
• verb transitive To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite; as, to instance a fact.
• verb intransitive To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.

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

• verb clarify by giving an example of
• noun an occurrence of something
• noun an item of information that is typical of a class or group