instrumental








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.
    1. (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.”
    2. noting the affix or other element characteristic of this case, or a word containing such an element.
    3. similar to such a case form in function or meaning, as the Latin instrumental ablative, gladiō, “by means of a sword.”
    4. (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.
    1. the instrumental case.
    2. a word in the instrumental case.
    3. a construction of similar meaning.
  2. a musical composition played by an instrument or a group of instruments.Compare vocal(def 8).

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. grammar 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
    1. the instrumental case
    2. a word or speech element in the instrumental case
adj.

late 14c., “of the nature of an instrument,” from Old French instrumental, from Medieval Latin instrumentalis, from Latin instrumentum (see instrument). Meaning “serviceable, useful” is from c.1600. Of music, c.1500; noun meaning “musical composition for instruments only” is attested by 1940. Related: Instrumentally; instrumentality.

52 queries 0.609