exemplar means something fit to be imitated; an ideal, a worthy model or role model: a desirable example. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 75 out of 100.
Why this word is great
EXEMPLAR — [Noun] A person or thing serving as a perfect example or model, either as an ideal to be imitated or as a typical representative of its class. From Latin exemplar ("pattern, model, copy"), from exemplum ("example"). Unlike "example," a general instance or illustration, or "prototype," a raw, chronological original, an exemplar is a perfected standard, the definitive specimen pinned in the taxonomic drawer. It is the flawless sonnet that contains an entire tradition, the master carpenter's perfectly balanced chisel, the preserved fossil that captures a species. It is the physical proof that an ideal can, however briefly, inhabit the real—a quiet rebuke to the merely adequate.
noun
- Something fit to be imitated; an ideal, a worthy model or role model: a desirable example.“A ray of light amid all this nonsense was Gwyn Topham's piece in the Guardian, which was timely, measured, accurate and of appropriate tone. That this single report stood out so clearly as an exemplar is a scathing comment in itself on the volumes of drivel surrounding it.”
- Something typical or representative; an example that typifies its class.
- A pattern after which others should be made; an archetype.
- A well-known use of a scientific theory.
- A manuscript used by a scribe to make a handwritten copy; the original document to be reproduced in a copy machine.
- A copy of a book or piece of writing.“To amend the same [default] according to the true exemplars.”
adj
- Exemplary.“In our age we have no patterne of motherly affection more exemplare, than yours.”