样本

• Pinyin: yàng běn
• Hanzi breakdown: 样 = 木 (wood/tree) + 羊 (phonetic — originally naming a type of oak, then extended to mean type or kind); 本 = 木 (tree) with a mark at the root — the root, origin, or foundational unit

Meaning

Sample; specimen; a representative unit drawn from a larger group for study, testing, or reference. Used in statistics, science, medicine, and research.

Central to quantitative research: 随机样本 (random sample), 代表性样本 (representative sample), 样本量 (sample size), 样本误差 (sampling error), 扩大样本 (to increase the sample). Also used metaphorically: 这个城市是中国经济转型的样本 (this city is a specimen/microcosm of China's economic transition).

Examples

1. 研究人员从全国十二个省份随机抽取了五千名受访者作为调查样本，以确保数据在全国范围内具有较高的代表性。 Researchers randomly selected 5,000 respondents from twelve provinces nationwide as the survey sample to ensure the data would be highly representative across the country.
2. 实验室收到一批来自疫区的血液样本后，立即启动了紧急检测程序，争分夺秒地对每份样本进行病毒核酸筛查。 After the lab received a batch of blood samples from the outbreak area, it immediately launched emergency testing, racing against the clock to screen each sample for viral nucleic acids.
3. 这座小城因其独特的产业结构和人口构成，常常被社会学研究者选作观察中国城镇化进程的典型样本。 Because of its distinctive industrial structure and population makeup, this small city is often chosen by sociologists as a typical case for observing China’s urbanization process.

Usage Guide

Context: science, statistics, medicine, research

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 在进行大规模流行病学调查时，样本的随机性和代表性是保证研究结论准确可靠、具有推广意义的最基本前提。(When conducting large-scale epidemiological surveys, the randomness and representativeness of the sample are the most fundamental prerequisites for ensuring that research conclusions are accurate, reliable, and generalisable.)
• 由于样本量过小且来源单一，这项研究的结论存在较大的局限性，难以对更大范围的人群或环境进行有效的外推与推论。(Because the sample size was too small and drawn from a single source, the conclusions of this study have significant limitations and are difficult to extrapolate effectively to broader populations or environments.)

Don't Say

• 给我看个样品 — 样品 (sample product) and 样本 (research/statistical sample) are distinct; 样品 is a physical product specimen for inspection or display; 样本 is a unit drawn from a population for analysis; do not conflate them

Origin & History

样 (sample/pattern — 木 wood + 羊 sheep, originally a type of oak; extended to mean 'type/kind/sample') + 本 (root/origin/source — 木 tree with a mark at the root)

Cultural Context

Era: Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal