instance
French, noun/ɛ̃s.tɑ̃s/
instance is spelled I-N-S-T-A-N-C-E (8 letters) and appears 16 times per million words in written French, the 4,658th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Instance is a French feminine noun meaning “urgent demand, insistence, plea” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Sollicitation pressante”.
What does instance mean in English?
noun
- 1
feminineurgent demand, insistence, plea
- 2
feminineauthority, forum, agency, body
- 3
femininelegal proceedings, prosecution process
- 4
feminineinstance
noun
- 1
feminineinstance
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Sollicitation pressante. 2. Procédure judiciaire. 3. Degré de juridiction. 4. Organisation qui a pouvoir de décider.
noun: 1. Copie d’un objet appartenant à une classe donnée, qui a ses données propres, et donc se comporte indépendamment, bien qu’avec les mêmes règles, des autres objets de la même classe. 2. Copie d’un logiciel fournissant un service sur un réseau. 3. Un objet ou un individu concret qui réalise ou exemplifie une catégorie, un type ou une classe abstraite.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of instance
- instances plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce instance?
- /ɛ̃s.tɑ̃s/
- \ɛ̃s.tɑ̃s\
- [y.n‿ɛ̃s.tɑ̃s]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to instance
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is instance in French?
instance appears 16 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).