Entry Word: exemplar

Function: noun

Meaning: 1 one of a group or collection that shows what the whole is like <the villageʼs Congregational church could serve as an exemplar of the white clapboard church with a steeple that is a fixture in old New England towns> — see example
2 someone of such unequaled perfection as to deserve imitation <few of historyʼs heroes were quite the exemplars that generations of schoolteachers made them out to be> — see ideal 1
3 the most perfect type or example <the paintings of the French painter Claude Monet are often regarded as exemplars of Impressionism> — see quintessence 1