exemplars

noun

plural of exemplar
1
as in examples
one of a group or collection that shows what the whole is like the village's Congregational church could serve as an exemplar of the white clapboard church with a steeple that is a fixture in old New England towns

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance
2
as in models
someone of such unequaled perfection as to deserve imitation few of history's heroes were quite the exemplars that generations of schoolteachers made them out to be

Synonyms & Similar Words
3
as in classics
the most perfect type or example the paintings of the French painter Claude Monet are often regarded as exemplars of Impressionism

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of exemplars Summary Dolly Parton and Oscar Wilde, despite their vastly different origins, are celebrated as exemplars of authentic personal branding. — William Arruda, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2026 One of this model’s best exemplars is an object known as MoM-BH*-1, first found in JWST images from 2023 and the subject of a paper published today in Nature. — Lee Billings, Scientific American, 12 Aug. 2026 Panegyrists of the American Century would hold up artists such as Pollock as exemplars of the new dynamism, the new liberty of free expression. — Steven Johnson, Washington Post, 14 July 2026 Melissa are prime exemplars of how to do it right — and you’re bound to discover both the ultra-luxury and the laid-back amidst Nordstrom’s bursting-at-the-seams sale section this May. — Stacia Datskovska, Footwear News, 26 May 2026 Between the historically high bar of OL Lyonnes and the recent surge of Barcelona, the two teams are shining exemplars of what’s possible with proper investment in women’s clubs. — Tamerra Griffin, New York Times, 21 May 2026 The trio of titles making the rounds at Cannes are exemplars of the type of material Anonymous Content intends to pursue that this moment of great upheaval across film and TV. — Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 8 May 2026 The Dutch — forebears of our city and exemplars of cycling culture — require fast e-bikes to be licensed and insured as mopeds. — Sameer Butt, New York Daily News, 4 Jan. 2026 These warblers now join Amazonian butterflies, cichlid fish in Africa, as well as our own hominid lineage, as exemplars of this process of evolutionary sharing. — David Toews, The Conversation, 11 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for exemplars
  1. examples
  2. models
  3. classics
  4. ideas
  5. ideals
  6. paragons
  7. perfections
  8. manifestations
Noun
  • The world’s highest-profile tech billionaires offer the most conspicuous examples.
    — Molly A. Wallace, Fortune, 24 Oct. 2026
  • The original plan for 25 street-legal M6 GTs was eventually altered to 50 examples due to FIA requirements, but production never came to fruition, derailed by the 32-year-old McLaren’s death during testing at Goodwood in 1970.
    — Jason Barlow, Robb Report, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of examples
Noun
  • Instead of manufacturing and physically testing hundreds of battery designs, engineers used computer models to evaluate more than 300,000 possible configurations before producing a prototype.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 23 Oct. 2026
  • The connective tissue between different models remains immature, and real transformation depends on it.
    — Chris Koehler, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of models
Noun
  • That album, like the Dio Sabbath classics before it, was fine-tuned for metalhead appreciation, thick with crushing riffs and dramatic vocals.
    — Brad Sanders, Pitchfork, 27 Oct. 2026
  • Dinner is a five-course omakase, where Nobu classics like the miso cod make cameos.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of classics
Noun
  • Our research and engineering remain world-class, but our record of getting ideas to market and improving how products are made has been less stellar.
    — Rick Lazio, Fortune, 24 Oct. 2026
  • As the woman in the shop explained to them, and the editors dutifully left in the episode to exonerate them, part of the aesthetic is bridging international ideas of cuteness (or kawaii in Japanese).
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of ideas
Noun
  • And in making their decisions to leave, both Kate and Hal are weighing the trade-off between access and ideals.
    — Hilary Lewis, HollywoodReporter, 20 Oct. 2026
  • His latest, The Case for America, is a paean to the founding ideals of the country.
    — Aidan McLaughlin, Vanity Fair, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of ideals
Noun
  • This image influenced the Italian view of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, in which European journalists presented the Japanese soldiers as samurai-like paragons of discipline and self-sacrifice.
    — Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 22 Sep. 2026
  • Grossman’s soldiers might not be tidy paragons of bravery, but they’re portrayed with an unwavering, compassionate regard.
    — Madeleine Wulfahrt, New Yorker, 8 July 2026
Definition of paragons
Noun
  • The collection is built around a fascination of the forest, its mystery, beauty, and the sublime forces of nature, its perfections and imperfections.
    — Felicity Carter, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Definition of perfections
Noun
  • Rachel Ojuromi had been in Paris for a week when one of her oldest manifestations started to become real life.
    — Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 6 Oct. 2026
  • Compared with the political circus in Washington and the malaise in the rest of America, such surface-level manifestations of China’s wealth and power often lead to sweeping conclusions about relative national trajectories.
    — Carl Minzner, Foreign Affairs, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of manifestations

Browse Nearby Words

exemplar
exemplars
exemplary
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Exemplars.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/exemplars. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of grotesque

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All