instance vs sample

instance and sample both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
instance	Yes	No	Yes	No
sample	Yes	No	Yes	No

As nouns, sample is a hyponym of instance; that is, sample is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than instance:

Other hyponyms of instance include apology, excuse, exception, case in point, precedent, quintessence, specimen.

instance (noun)	sample (noun)
an item of information that is typical of a class or group	a small part of something intended as representative of the whole
an occurrence of something	items selected at random from a population and used to test hypotheses about the population
	all or part of a natural object that is collected and preserved as an example of its class

instance (verb)	sample (verb)
clarify by giving an example of	take a sample of