sample

UK: /ˈsɑːmp^əl/ US: /ˈsæmpəl/ ,(sam′pəl, säm′-)

Inflections of 'sample' (v): (⇒ conjugate)

samples

v 3rd person singular

sampling

v pres p

sampled

v past

sampled

v past p

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

sam•ple /ˈsæmpəl/   n., adj., v., -pled, -pling. 
n. [countable]

1. a small part from a larger whole, showing the quality, style, or nature of the whole;
   specimen:
   a sample of her urine for a test.

adj. [before a noun]

2. serving as a specimen:
   a sample piece of cloth.

v. [~ + object]

3. to take a sample of:
   sampled the food before serving it.

See -am-.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

sam•ple  (sam′pəl, säm′-), n., adj., v., -pled, -pling. 
n. 

1. a small part of anything or one of a number, intended to show the quality, style, or nature of the whole;
   specimen.
2. Statistics a subset of a population:
   to study a sample of the total population.
3. Radio and Television a sound of short duration, as a musical tone or a drumbeat, digitally stored in a synthesizer for playback.

adj. 

4. serving as a specimen:
   a sample piece of cloth.

v.t. 

5. to take a sample or samples of;
   test or judge by a sample.

• Old French essample. See example
• Middle English 1250–1300

Synonyms

• 1. See example. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

sample / ˈsɑːmp^əl/ noun

1. a small part of anything, intended as representative of the whole; specimen
2. (as modifier): a sample bottle
3. Also called: sampling a set of individuals or items selected from a population for analysis to yield estimates of, or to test hypotheses about, parameters of the whole population. A biased sample is one in which the items selected share some property which influences their distribution, while a random sample is devised to avoid any such interference so that its distribution is affected only by, and so can be held to represent, that of the whole population

verb

1. (transitive) to take a sample or samples of
2. to take a short extract from (one record) and mix it into a different backing track
3. to record (a sound) and feed it into a computerized synthesizer so that it can be reproduced at any pitch

Etymology: 13th Century: from Old French essample, from Latin exemplum example