# instance

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈɪnstəns/ · frequency rank #2,540

## Definitions
1. Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence.
2. A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.
3. That which is urgent; motive.
4. A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something).
5. An occasion; an order of occurrence.
6. A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example.
7. One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.
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.
9. 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.
10. An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.
11. An independent server on a decentralised social network, such as Mastodon.

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

## Easily confused with
- **instant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/instance-vs-instant)
- **instinct** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/instance-vs-instinct)
- **issuance** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/instance-vs-issuance)
- **insurance** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/instance-vs-insurance)
- **instances** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/instance-vs-instances)
- **insane** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/insane-vs-instance)

## Common misspellings (13)
`innstance`, `insatnce`, `insstance`, `instacne`, `instancce`, `instanec`, `instannce`, `instence`, `instnace`, `insttance`, `intsance`, `isntance`, `nistance`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/instance