Adjacent Words

Instrumental definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INSTRUMENT'AL, a. Conducive as an instrument or means to some end; contributing aid; serving to promote or effect an object; helpful. The press has been instrumental in enlarging the bounds of knowledge.
1. Pertaining to instruments; made by instruments; as instrumental music, distinguished form vocal music, which is made by the human voice.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: relating to or designed for or performed on musical instruments; "instrumental compositions"; "an instrumental ensemble" [ant: vocal]
2: serving or acting as a means or aid; "instrumental in solving the crime" [syn: implemental, instrumental, subservient]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 14th century 1. a. serving as a crucial means, agent, or tool <was instrumental in organizing the strike> b. of, relating to, or done with an instrument or tool 2. relating to, composed for, or performed on a musical instrument 3. of, relating to, or being a grammatical case or form expressing means or agency 4. of or relating to instrumentalism 5. operant 3 <instrumental learning> <instrumental conditioning> • instrumental noun • instrumentally adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 (usu. foll. by to, in, or in + verbal noun) serving as an instrument or means (was instrumental in finding the money). 2 (of music) performed on instruments, without singing (cf. VOCAL). 3 of, or arising from, an instrument (instrumental error). 4 Gram. of or in the instrumental. --n. 1 a piece of music performed by instruments, not by the voice. 2 Gram. the case of nouns and pronouns (and words in grammatical agreement with them) indicating a means or instrument. Derivatives: instrumentalist n. instrumentality n. instrumentally adv. Etymology: ME f. F f. med.L instrumentalis (as INSTRUMENT)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Instrumental In`stru*men"tal, a. [Cf. F. instrumental.] 1. Acting as an instrument; serving as a means; contributing to promote; conductive; helpful; serviceable; as, he was instrumental in conducting the business. The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more instrumental to the mouth. --Shak. 2. (Mus.) Pertaining to, made by, or prepared for, an instrument, esp. a musical instrument; as, instrumental music, distinguished from vocal music. ``He defended the use of instrumental music in public worship.'' --Macaulay. Sweet voices mix'd with instrumental sounds. --Dryden. 3. (Gram.) Applied to a case expressing means or agency; as, the instrumental case. This is found in Sanskrit as a separate case, but in Greek it was merged into the dative, and in Latin into the ablative. In Old English it was a separate case, but has disappeared, leaving only a few anomalous forms. Instrumental errors, those errors in instrumental measurements, etc., which arise, exclusively from want of mathematical accuracy in an instrument.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(instrumentals) 1. Someone or something that is instrumental in a process or event helps to make it happen. In his first years as chairman he was instrumental in raising the company's wider profile... ADJ: usu v-link ADJ, oft ADJ in -ing/n 2. Instrumental music is performed by instruments and not by voices. ...a cassette recording of vocal and instrumental music. ADJ: ADJ n • Instrumentals are pieces of instrumental music. The last track on the CD is an instrumental. N-COUNT: usu pl

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Conducive, subservient, serviceable, helping, helpful, assisting, auxiliary, ancillary, subsidiary, ministerial. 2. Of (musical) instruments.

Moby Thesaurus

accessory, adjuvant, advantageous, agential, agentival, agentive, ancillary, assistant, assisting, auxiliary, beneficial, catalytic, concert, conducive, contributory, dramatico-musical, employable, facilitating, favoring, forwarding, fostering, handy, helpful, helping, important, intermediary, jazz, jazzy, mediating, mediatorial, ministerial, ministering, ministrant, nurtural, nutricial, of service, orchestral, promoting, rock, serviceable, serving, significant, subservient, subsidiary, supporting, supportive, swing, symphonic, syncopated, useful, utilitarian, valuable