What can I say instead of sample?

Instead of sample, you can use many alternative words depending on the context and what type of sample you mean. For a small piece for testing, you can say specimen, example, instance, exemplar, or illustration. For a trial product, you can say freebie, trial, taster, tester, or prototype. For a statistical sample, you can say subset, selection, cross-section, sampling, or cohort. For a blood or medical sample, you can say specimen, swab, culture, or biopsy. For tasting food, you can say taste, bite, morsel, nibble, or sip. For music sampling, you can say snippet, clip, excerpt, loop, or extract. For a representative example, you can say case, model, pattern, or demonstration. For instance, instead of saying can I have a sample of the wine, you could say can I have a taste of the wine. Instead of free sample, you could say complimentary tester or trial size. Instead of sample of population, you could say subset of population. So alternatives include specimen, example, exemplar, instance, illustration, subset, selection, specimen, taster, tester, prototype, snippet, excerpt, and representative piece, choose based on whether you mean trial product, biological material, or representative portion.