Word.ws English Dictionary

exempla

exempla is the plural of exemplum.

Meaning of exemplum

Noun

exemplum (plural exempla)

  1. An example.
    • In addition, if study of remodeled versus active lesions, or lesions of different grades of severity was germane to a work, photographs of exempla should be presented so readers can evaluate them.2023, Simon Mays, “The Macroscopic Study of Human Skeletal Paleopathology” (chapter 2), in The Routledge Handbook of Paleopathology, Routledge, →DOI, →ISBN, page 32
  2. (literary, rhetoric) A story demonstrating a moral point; a parable.
    • In the Middle Ages preachers had enlivened their sermons with exempla – edifying tales of judgements upon sinners and mercies shown to the pious.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 90

Questions about exempla

What is exempla the plural of?
Exempla is the plural of exemplum.

Words near exempla in the dictionary

  1. exemed
  2. exemes
  3. exemestane
  4. exemestene
  5. exeming
  6. exempla
  7. exemplar
  8. exemplarary
  9. exemplare
  10. exemplares
  11. exemplaric

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: exempla (page history and authors); exemplum (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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