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.
Instance (noun)
Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence. 14th-19th c.
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”
Instance (noun)
That which is urgent; motive.
Instance (noun)
Occasion; order of occurrence.
Instance (noun)
A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example. from 16th c.
Instance (noun)
One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.
Instance (noun)
A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something). 16th-18th c.
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.
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.
Instance (noun)
An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.
Instance (verb)
To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite
“to instance a fact”
Instance (verb)
To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.
Entity (noun)
That which has a distinct existence as an individual unit. Often used for organisations which have no physical form.
Entity (noun)
The existence of something considered apart from its properties.
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.
Entity (noun)
The state or quality of being or existence.
“The group successfully maintains its tribal entity.”
Entity (noun)
a thing with distinct and independent existence
“Church and empire were fused in a single entity”
Entity (noun)
existence; being
“entity and nonentity”