Prototype Meaning
/ˈpɹəʊtətaɪp/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAn original form or object which is a basis for other forms or objects (particularly manufactured items), or for its generalizations and models.
nounAn early sample or model built to test a concept or process.
Sentence Examples
prototype.js - inserts update information into the page when the page is loaded.
This design is too inefficient to prototype.
An early prototype broke when the engineers tested it.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The engineers built a ____ of the new car to test its performance before mass production.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The engineers built a working ____ of the new vehicle and tested it on a closed circuit.
Word Origin & History
From French prototype or Late Latin prototypon, from Ancient Greek πρωτότυπος (prōtótupos, “original; prototype”), from πρωτο- (prōto-, “first”) (from πρῶτος (prôtos, “first; earliest”)) + τῠ́πος (tŭ́pos, “blow, pressing; sort, type”) (from τύπτω (túptō, “to beat, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- (“to push; to stick”)). The word is analysable as proto- + -type.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"And if Jordan were but Jaar Eden, that is, the Riuer of Eden, Geneſar but Ganſar or the Prince of Gardens; and it could be made out, that the Plain of Jordan were watered not comparatively, but cauſally, and becauſe it was the Paradiſe of God, as the Learned Abramas hinteth, he was not far from the Prototype and originall of Plantations."
— 1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter I.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, pages 102–103:
"[T]his Holy Trinity is not Three Divine Attributes, ſuch as Wiſdom, Power, and Goodneſs; for they are all Three the very ſame with each other, the ſame Wiſdom, Goodneſs, and Power, and therefore not Three Parts or Attributes of the ſame Deity, but each is the whole, the Prototype, and its living Image is."
— 1694, [William Sherlock], A Defence of Dr. Sherlock’s Notion of a Trinity in Unity, […], London: Printed for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC, pages 28–29:
"Only one manuscript of Plautus seems to have escaped the general wreck of ancient literature; and it served as the prototype to all the manuscripts at present extant."
— 1839 August, “Plautus. …”, in Foreign Monthly Review, and Continental Literary Journal, volume I, number IV, London: D[avid] Nutt, […]; Dulau and Co., […]; Berlin: Asher; Paris: Gayet and Lebrun, →OCLC, page 417:
"The making of the new prototypes of the metre and the kilogramme, the tracing of the metres, the comparison of the new prototypes with those of the Archives, as well as the construction of the auxillary apparatus necessary to these operations, are entrusted to the care of the French section, with the concurrence of the Permanent Committee, […]"
— 1872 October 31, “International Metric Commission”, in Nature: A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science, volume VI, number 157, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, section III (In Reference to the Carrying Out of the Commission's Decision), article 34, page 544, column 2:
"General Electric, under contract to the A.E.C., is now building a land-based prototype of this nuclear-power plant at West Milton, N.Y. A land-based prototype of the nuclear-power plant for the "Nautilus," developed jointly by the A.E.C.'s Argonne National Laboratory and the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, is now being built by Westinghouse, also under contract to the A.E.C."
— 1952 August, “[Washington Reporting] General Dynamics will Build Second Nuclear Sub”, in The Log, volume 47, number 9, Bristol, Conn.: Miller Freeman Publications, →OCLC, page 24, column 3:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The engineers built a ____ of the new car to test its performance before mass production.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The engineers built a working ____ of the new vehicle and tested it on a closed circuit.