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Entity
An entity is anything that claims independent existence (as opposed to merely being part of a whole), whether as a subject or as an object, actually or potentially, concretely or abstractly.
The term is broad in scope and may refer to animals; natural features like mountains; inanimate objects like tables; abstractions like numbers or sets; human contrivances like laws, corporations and academic disciplines; or supernatural beings like Gods and spirits.
The adjectival form is entitative and refers to something considered in its own right.
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Instance (noun)
Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence. 14th-19th c.
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Instance (noun)
A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.
“It sends some precious instance of itself/ After the thing it loves. Hamlet IV. v. ca. 1602”
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Instance (noun)
That which is urgent; motive.
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Instance (noun)
Occasion; order of occurrence.
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Instance (noun)
A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example. from 16th c.
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Instance (noun)
One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.
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Instance (noun)
A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something). 16th-18th c.
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Instance (noun)
In object-oriented programming: a created object, one that has had memory allocated for local data storage; an instantiation of a class. from 20th c.
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Instance (noun)
A dungeon or other area that is duplicated for each player, or each party of players, that enters it, so that each player or party has a private copy of the area, isolated from other players.
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Instance (noun)
An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.
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Instance (verb)
To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite
“to instance a fact”
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Instance (verb)
To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.
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Entity (noun)
That which has a distinct existence as an individual unit. Often used for organisations which have no physical form.
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Entity (noun)
The existence of something considered apart from its properties.
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Entity (noun)
Anything about which information or data can be stored in a database; in particular, an organised array or set of individual elements or parts.
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Entity (noun)
The state or quality of being or existence.
“The group successfully maintains its tribal entity.”
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Entity (noun)
a thing with distinct and independent existence
“Church and empire were fused in a single entity”
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Entity (noun)
existence; being
“entity and nonentity”