exemplary
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪɡˈzɛmpləɹi/
ipa: /ɛɡ-/
Forms: form: more exemplary
form: most exemplary
form: examplary
Etymology: From Middle French exemplaire (“exemplary; a copy, facsimile; an example; a sample, specimen”), from Latin exemplāris (“exemplary; a copy, facsimile”), from exemplum (“an example; a sample; a copy or transcript”). By surface analysis, example + -ary. Doublet of exemplar. First use as a noun appears c. 1425, as an adjective, c. 1507.
Senses: examples: text: To answer these questions we must look more closely at the exemplary achievements of [David] Politzer, [David] Gross and [Frank] Wilcek. Here we will see the severe problems facing theorists in both the theoretical and phenomenological exploitation of QCD [quantum chromodynamics].
ref: 1984, Andrew Pickering, “Quantum Chromodynamics: A Gauge Theory of the Strong Interactions”, in Constructing Quarks: A Sociological History of Particle Physics, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 224:
glosses: Deserving honour, respect and admiration.
examples: text: Her behaviour was always exemplary.
text: The Archbishops and Bishops, next under the King, have the government of the Church and affairs ecclesiastical: be not, Sir, a mean to prefer any to those places for any by-respect; but only such as for their learning, gravity, and worth are deserving: and whose lives and doctrine are and ought to be exemplary.
ref: 1616, Francis Bacon, “A Copy of a Letter Conceived to the Written to the Late Duke of Buckingham when First He Became a Favourite to King James; […]”, in James Spedding, editor, The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon: […], volume VI, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, published 1872, →OCLC, page 31:
text: For thus the Saviour of the world became humane, alluring, full of invitation and the ſweetneſſes of love, exemplary, humble and medicinal.
ref: 1678, Jeremy Taylor, “Ad[dendum to] Sect. I. Considerations upon the Annunciation of the Blessed Mary, and the Conception of the Holy Jesus”, in The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus, part I, London: […] E. Flesher, for R[ichard] Royston; published in Jeremy Taylor, William Cave, Antiquitates Christianiæ: Or, The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: […], London: […] E. Flesher, and R. Norton, for R. Royston, […], 1678, →OCLC, page 3:
text: Lady Anne could not repress one involuntary exclamation of "what an inconvenient time Mr. Granard had chosen for his death!" but otherwise she behaved with exemplary propriety. She retired to her dressing-room, which was duly darkened, and there she sat, a white cambric handkerchief in one hand, and a bottle of salts in the other.
ref: 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 14:
text: A maximum of 80 m.p.h. was quickly reached on the 1 in 264 down through Three Bridges and at this pace the riding was exemplary.
ref: 1959 March, “The 2,500 h.p. electric locomotives for the Kent Coast electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 125:
text: The film, with its exemplary sound and special effects, is such a ride that in some instances audiences might think their seats are shaking.
ref: 2023 July 5, Murtada Elfadl, “Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One review: Tom Cruise runs, jumps, and delivers again”, in AV Club:
glosses: Of such high quality that it should serve as an example to be imitated; ideal, perfect.
examples: text: exemplary justice, exemplary punishment, exemplary damages
text: For certain torts exemplary damages may be awarded to punish the defendant for cynically committing them and other remedies are available which are purely restitutionary in effect, notably restitutionary damages and money had and received.
ref: 1999, Graham Virgo, “Restitution for Torts”, in The Principles of the Law of Restitution, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, page 473:
glosses: Serving as a warning; monitory.
examples: text: [T]ill he infect and poison that age, and spoil that time that he lives in by his exemplary sins, till he be pestis secularis, the plague of that age, peccator secularis, the proverbial sinner of that age, and so be a sinner of a hundred years, till in his actions he have been, or in his desires be, or in the foreknowledge of God would be a sinner of a hundred years, an inveterate, an incorrigible, an everlasting sinner, yet God comes not to curse him.
ref: 16th–17th century, John Donne, Henry Alford, “Sermon CVII. Preached to the King, at Whitehall, the First Sunday in Lent.”, in The Works of John Donne, D.D., […], volume IV, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 461:
text: [...] I want to round off my consideration of poststructuralist geographies by pursuing origami as the exemplary art of spatial science.
ref: 1999, Marcus Doel, “Neighbourhood of Infinity – Spatial Science after Deleuze and Guattari”, in Poststructuralist Geographies: The Diabolical Art of Spatial Science, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 161:
glosses: Providing an example or illustration.
Synonyms: sense: all senses
word: exemplar
sense: serving as a warning
word: admonitory
Derived terms: counterexemplary
exemplarily
exemplariness
exemplarity
nonexemplary
unexemplary