sample vs instance

sample and instance both are nouns.

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

As nouns, instance is a hypernym of sample; that is, instance is a word with a broader meaning than sample:

Other hypernyms of sample include example, illustration, representative.

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

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