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PlainSpell

instance

/ˈɪnstəns/noun, verb

instance is spelled I-N-S-T-A-N-C-E: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 39 times per million words in written English, the 2,523rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, instance means “An occasion; an order of occurrence” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of instance is instances.

How many letters and syllables are in instance?

Letters8: I-N-S-T-A-N-C-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing39 times per million words; the 2,523rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is instance?

Instance appears 39 times per million words in written English, the 2,523rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce instance?

  • /ˈɪnstəns/

Instance has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-instance.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with instance?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as instance.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: ancients.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of instance

  • instances plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • enstaunce
  • instaunce
  • instancing participle, present
  • instanced participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does instance mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteUrgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence.

  2. 2

    obsoleteA token; a sign; a symptom or indication.

  3. 3

    obsoleteThat which is urgent; motive.

  4. 4

    obsoleteA piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something).

  5. 5

    An occasion; an order of occurrence.

  6. 6

    A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example.

    August 30, 1706, Francis Atterbury, a sermon preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, at the funeral of Mr. Tho. Bennet most remarkable instances of suffering

  7. 7

    One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.

  8. 8

    A specific occurrence of something that is created or instantiated, such as a database, or an object of a class in object-oriented programming.

verb

  1. 1

    To mention as a case or example; to refer to.

    Near-synonyms: adduce, cite

  2. 2

    To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.

  3. 3

    To duplicate (a dungeon or other area) 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.

  4. 4

    To render (an object) as part of a batch, using the same geometry data.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Instance in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Spanishinstancia ((obsolete in English) an urgent request…)
Frenchinstance (case occurring, a case offered as an…)
GermanBeispiel, Fall (case occurring, a case offered as an…), Instanz (in computing)
Portugueseexemplo (case occurring, a case offered as an…), instância (in computing), ocorrência, ocasião (recurring occasion, case)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does instance come from?

Borrowed from Middle French instance, from Latin īnstantia (“a being near, presence, also perseverance, earnestness, importunity, urgency”), from īnstāns (“urgent”); see instant.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after instance