(~s)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
An ~ is an example or a story which is used to make a point clear.
...a perfect ~ of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences.
N-COUNT: oft N of n
2.
An ~ in a book is a picture, design, or diagram.
She looked like a princess in a nineteenth-century ~.
N-COUNT
3.
see also illustrate