Instrumental (noun) Definition, Meaning & Examples

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adjective
  1. serving or acting as an instrument or means; useful; helpful.
  2. performed on or written for a musical instrument or instruments: instrumental music.
  3. of or relating to an instrument or tool.
  4. Grammar.
    • (in certain inflected languages, as Old English and Russian) noting or pertaining to a case having as its distinctive function the indication of means or agency, as Old English beseah blīthe andweitan “looked with a happy countenance.”
    • noting the affix or other element characteristic of this case, or a word containing such an element.
    • similar to such a case form in function or meaning, as the Latin instrumental ablative, gladiō, “by means of a sword.”
    • (in case grammar) pertaining to the semantic role of a noun phrase that indicates the inanimate, nonvolitional, immediate cause of the action expressed by a verb, as the rock in The rock broke the window or in I broke the window with the rock.
noun
  1. Grammar.
    • the instrumental case.
    • a word in the instrumental case.
    • a construction of similar meaning.
  2. a musical composition played by an instrument or a group of instruments.
adjective
  1. serving as a means or influence; helpful
  2. of, relating to, or characterized by an instrument or instruments
  3. played by or composed for musical instruments
  4. denoting a case of nouns, etc, in certain inflected languages, indicating the instrument used in performing an action, usually translated into English using the prepositions with or by means of
noun
  1. a piece of music composed for instruments rather than for voices
  2. grammar
    • the instrumental case
    • a word or speech element in the instrumental case
Instrumental (noun) Definition, Meaning & Examples

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