What does sample mean?

Sample means a small part, portion, piece, or subset taken from a larger whole to represent, show, test, or study what the whole is like. As a noun, sample is a specimen for analysis, such as blood sample, a free trial product, such as perfume sample, a swatch of fabric, or in statistics a group of people selected from a larger population to survey because studying everyone is impractical. As a verb, to sample means to take a sample, to try, taste, test, or select a subset. For example, to sample a cake means to taste a small piece, to sample opinions means to survey some people. In music, sample means a short snippet of sound taken from one recording to reuse in another song. In EMS and first aid, SAMPLE is a mnemonic for medical history: Signs and symptoms, Allergies, Medications, Past medical history, Last oral intake, Events leading up. The core idea of sample is representativeness, a small piece that reflects the larger entity, used to save time, cost, and effort while gaining insight. Samples are used everywhere from shopping to science to research to art, making it a versatile word meaning example or representative piece.