example vs prototype

example

noun
  • Something that is representative of all such things in a group. 

  • Something that serves to illustrate or explain a rule. 

  • Something that serves as a pattern of behaviour to be imitated (a good example) or not to be imitated (a bad example). 

  • A person punished as a warning to others. 

  • A parallel or closely similar case, especially when serving as a precedent or model. 

  • An instance (as a problem to be solved) serving to illustrate the rule or precept or to act as an exercise in the application of the rule. 

verb
  • To be illustrated or exemplified (by). 

prototype

noun
  • An instance of a category or a concept that combines its most representative attributes. 

  • An original form or object which is a basis for other forms or objects (particularly manufactured items), or for its generalizations and models. 

  • An early sample or model built to test a concept or process. 

  • A type of race car, a racing sports car not based on a production car. A 4-wheeled cockpit-seating car built especially for racing on sports car circuits, that does not use the silhouette related to a consumer road car. 

  • A declaration of a function that specifies the name, return type, and parameters, but none of the body or actual code. 

verb
  • To create a prototype of. 

How often have the words example and prototype occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )