English Explanatory Dictionary

instrumental

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Essential or central; of great importance or relevance.
  2. Serving as an instrument, medium, means, or agency.
  3. Pertaining to, made by, or prepared for an instrument, especially a musical instrument (rather than the human voice).
  4. Applied to a case expressing means or agency, generally corresponding to the English use of prepositions such as by, with, through, or by means of with the objective case.
noun
  1. The instrumental case.
  2. A composition written or performed without lyrics or singing, using a lead instrument to replace vocals.
  3. A pause in the vocals of a song, usually occurring midway through, in which a musical instrument replaces the vocals.

Pronunciation

/ɪnstɹəˈmɛntəl/ /ɪnstɹʊˈmɛntəl/ en-us-instrumental.ogg

Word forms

instrumental more instrumental most instrumental instrumentals

Etymology

From Middle English instrumental, instrumentale, from Medieval Latin īnstrūmentālis, equivalent to instrument + -al.

Antonyms

noninstrumental

Related words

instrument

Derived words

instrumental error instrumentalisation instrumentalism instrumentalist instrumentality instrumentalize instrumentally instrumentalness instrumental rationality instrumental version instrumental width instrumentive uninstrumental

Translations

Bulgarian: инструментален Chinese Mandarin: 有幫助的 /有帮助的 Chinese Mandarin: 可作為方法的 /可作为方法的 Chinese Mandarin: 可作為手段的 /可作为手段的 German: dienlich German: förderlich German: entscheidend German: hilfreich Indonesian: instrumental Norwegian Bokmål: instrumentell Norwegian Nynorsk: instrumentell Polish: instrumentalny Portuguese: instrumental
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