Word.ws English Dictionary

for instance

for instance adverb: as an example.

Adverb

for instance (not comparable)

  1. (conjunctive) As an example.
    • Not everything in the economy is getting worse. For instance, inflation has recently fallen.
    • At twilight in the summer[…]the mice come out. They[…]eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly—the only lavishment of which he was ever guilty—on the floor.1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC

Noun

for instance (plural for instances)

  1. (informal) An example.
    • Here's a for instance.

for instance meaning in Urdu

Examples of for instance in a sentence

  • And I'm straining every nerve to make this one!" / "And the suffering — such as today's, for instance — is unavoidable?"1907, Edith Wharton, The Fruit of the Tree, page 205:
  • One taps any source of comfort — Leigh Ashton at Charleston yesterday for instance.1940, Virginia Woolf, edited by Leonard Woolf, A Writer's Diary, published 1953, page 323:
  • He might be allowed fifteen minutes to read this book, for instance—or even a book twice as long.1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 18:
  • I met one yesterday, for instance – some treat he was!2006, Michael Karpelson, The Master And Margarita, translation of original by Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov, page 66:

Synonyms of for instance

Forms of for instance

Adverb
alternative formf'rinstance
alternative formfrinstance
alternative formfer instance
alternative formferinstance
alternative formfer-instance
Noun
pluralfor instances

Questions about for instance

What does for instance mean?
For instance means as an example.
What is for instance in Urdu?
For instance in Urdu is مثلاً. See For instance meaning in Urdu.
How do you use for instance in a sentence?
And I'm straining every nerve to make this one!" / "And the suffering — such as today's, for instance — is unavoidable?"
What part of speech is for instance?
For instance can be an adverb or a noun.

Words near for instance in the dictionary

  1. for grins
  2. for heaven's sake
  3. for hellery
  4. for here
  5. for hours
  6. for instance
  7. for instances
  8. for Ireland
  9. for it
  10. for keeps
  11. for kicks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: for instance (page history and authors); for instance (Urdu Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-for-instance.ogg.

Cite this entry: “for instance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/for_instance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.