exemplary

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   extremely good and worthy of being copied or admired

   The rescue team showed exemplary courage throughout the operation.

2. 2
   adj

   serving as a representative example of a type

   The museum preserved the house as an exemplary work of modernist design.

3. 3
   adj

   intended to warn others by imposing a severe example

   The court awarded exemplary damages to deter similar misconduct.

From Middle French exemplaire, from Latin exemplaris ("serving as an example"), based on exemplum ("example, pattern"). The warning sense survives in phrases such as exemplary punishment, where one person's treatment is made an example for others.

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