1
as in example
one of a group or collection that shows what the whole is like a literary character who is regarded as the prototype of the fanatical and intolerant pursuer of justice

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2
as in forerunner
something belonging to an earlier time from which something else was later developed the Greek epic that is the prototype of the hero myth

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3
as in original
something from which copies are made the manufacturer exhaustively tested the prototype of the vehicle before approving production

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of prototype Saft comes from Levittown, Long Island, the prototype for conformist, white-picketed American suburbia. Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker, 20 Oct. 2025 Based on these discoveries, researchers – including these Nobel Prize recipients and their research groups – have made significant achievements in constructing prototype quantum computers using superconducting quantum circuits in the decades since. Zhixin Wang, The Conversation, 10 Oct. 2025 Aboard will be a prototype cargo spacecraft, a first move for a low-cost cargo transportation system to serve Tiangong, called for by China's human spaceflight agency. Andrew Jones, Space.com, 9 Oct. 2025 Shortly thereafter, Dumas turned Birkin’s dreams of an alternative carryall into reality — gifting her with a Birkin bag prototype and putting the silhouette on the market in 1984. Stacia Datskovska, Footwear News, 3 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for prototype
Recent Examples of Synonyms for prototype
Noun
  • One example of such smaller space weather events is a magnetic flux rope—bundles of magnetic fields wrapped around each other like a rope.
    JSTOR Daily, JSTOR Daily, 24 Oct. 2025
  • One of the most famous examples of a major business leader succeeding from failure was Apple’s visionary cofounder Steve Jobs.
    Sydney Lake, Fortune, 24 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • The investor and industrialist Andrew Mellon enjoyed a lengthy tenure as Treasury secretary—a forerunner to Trump’s Treasury appointees, Steven Mnuchin and Scott Bessent, both of them recruited straight from Wall Street.
    Evan Hughes, The Atlantic, 20 Oct. 2025
  • Half of those tested had osteoporosis or a forerunner condition, osteopenia.
    The New York Times News Service Syndicate, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • The 2022 Sequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre Set in the modern day, this 2022 Netflix movie is (another) direct sequel to the original, ignoring every film that comes between.
    Keith Langston, PEOPLE, 25 Oct. 2025
  • But sometimes its just great to come back to the original.
    Jeremy Repanich, Robb Report, 25 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • In total, the researchers analyzed 357 contemporary mosquitoes and 22 historical specimens, and used additional mosquito samples from a separate study, which beefed up the overall count to about 800.
    Jacopo Prisco, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2025
  • Using data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a national database that collects emergency department injury data from a representative sample of about 100 American hospitals, the researchers applied statistical weighting to estimate national injury rates.
    New Atlas, New Atlas, 24 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • This monster is the precursor to slasher villains like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, who lumber along on their killing sprees, though this blueprint is far more sympathetic.
    Steven Thrash, Entertainment Weekly, 24 Oct. 2025
  • It is then converted into acetic acid, a key methane precursor.
    Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • In total, the researchers analyzed 357 contemporary mosquitoes and 22 historical specimens, and used additional mosquito samples from a separate study, which beefed up the overall count to about 800.
    Jacopo Prisco, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2025
  • In both the dinosaur mummy specimens, the skin, spikes, and hooves have not been preserved as tissue but as a sub-millimeter clay film that formed on the carcass surface soon after burial.
    Abhishek Bhardwaj, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • The ancestors were taken from the Riverside Cemetery site near the Menominee River in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula between 1961 and 1963 during a joint excavation led by anthropologists Robert Retzenthaler for the Milwaukee Public Museum and Robert Hrushka for the Oshkosh Public Museum.
    Frank Vaisvilas, jsonline.com, 27 Oct. 2025
  • Furthermore, the analyses consistently position the new species as an ancestor of the entire dyrosaurid group.
    Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 27 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • The cover image isn't the only instance where the couple is dressed in coordinating looks.
    Angel Saunders, PEOPLE, 23 Oct. 2025
  • Jourdan is a relatively calm ghost (staff report objects being moved around the restaurant), but there’s a slightly more active spirit in the Courtyard Bar, where there have been three instances of an unknown source throwing a glass from across the room.
    Sophie Friedman, AFAR Media, 22 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Prototype.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prototype. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.

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