Definition of "instance" in English

noun

(obsolete) Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence.
(obsolete) A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.
(obsolete) That which is urgent; motive.
(obsolete) A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something).
An occasion; an order of occurrence.
A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example.
- August 30, 1706, Francis Atterbury, a sermon preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, at the funeral of Mr. Tho. Bennet most remarkable instances of suffering
- sometimes we love those that are absent, saith Philostratus, and gives instance in his friend Athenodorus, that loved a maid at Corinth whom he never saw […]
One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.
(computing) A specific occurrence of something that is created or instantiated, such as a database, or an object of a class in object-oriented programming.
(massively multiplayer online games) 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.
- Beating a difficult instance becomes second nature after running through it…a few times, with good leaders knowing exactly what to do and how to co-ordinate member actions.
(massively multiplayer online games) An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.
(Internet) An independent server on a decentralised social network, such as Mastodon.

verb

(transitive) To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite
(intransitive) To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.
(massively multiplayer online games) To duplicate (a dungeon or other area) 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.
(transitive, computer graphics) To render (an object) as part of a batch, using the same geometry data.