exemplify

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English exemplifien, from Middle French exemplifier and its etymon Medieval Latin exemplificō, from Latin exemplum (“example”).[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛɡˈzɛmplɪfaɪ/, /ɪɡˈzɛmplɪfaɪ/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Verb

exemplify (third-person singular simple present exemplifies, present participle exemplifying, simple past and past participle exemplified)

  1. (ambitransitive) To show or illustrate by example.
    • 1893, J[ames] Compton Burnett, “The Difficulties”, in Curability of Tumours by Medicines, London: The Homœopathic Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, page 52:
      This slowness is very detrimental to its adoption: I will exemplify—I had cured a lady of a tiny tumour m her nose; she was pleased and grateful, and subsequently brought to me her niece, on whom the doctors were about to operate for a small ovarian tumour; I cured this tumour also, but it occupied two years or thereabouts, and then aunt and niece both persuaded a friend, a lady residing at Shepherd’s Bush, to come to me. How long did I think it would take to cure her ovarian tumour? At least two years. I prefer the operation said she, that will only take six weeks. But it took less—she died under or shortly after the operation.
  2. (transitive) To be an instance of or serve as an example.
    Synonym: instance
    • 2013 September 14, Jane Shilling, “The Golden Thread: the Story of Writing, by Ewan Clayton, review [print edition: Illuminating language]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎[1], archived from the original on 11 July 2025, page R28:
      [T]he pleasure of writing on wax with a stylus is exemplified by the fine, flowing hand of a Roman scribe who made out the birth certificate of Herennia Gemella, born March 128 AD.
    • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Bournemouth (circa 1880)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 60:
      Of course, closure of the West station took away the hotel's raison d'être. In May 2012, the local newspaper reported that this historic hotel, by then rated the town's worst (exemplified by its final review: "Please avoid at all costs"), was to be converted into 31 first-time-buyer one-bedroom flats.
  3. (transitive) To make an attested copy or transcript of (a document) under seal.
  4. (transitive) To prove by such an attested copy or transcript.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ “exemplify, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Further reading

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