Instrumental
[ɪnstrʊ'ment(ə)l] or [,ɪnstrə'mɛntl]
Definition
(adj.) relating to or designed for or performed on musical instruments; 'instrumental compositions'; 'an instrumental ensemble' .
Checker: Lola--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Acting as an instrument; serving as a means; contributing to promote; conductive; helpful; serviceable; as, he was instrumental in conducting the business.
(a.) Pertaining to, made by, or prepared for, an instrument, esp. a musical instrument; as, instrumental music, distinguished from vocal music.
(a.) 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.
Editor: Roxanne
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Conducive, subservient, serviceable, helping, helpful, assisting, auxiliary, ancillary, ministerial.[2]. Of musical instruments.
Typist: Wanda
Examples
- An instrumental value then has the intrinsic value of being a means to an end. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- The empress's apartment on fire by an accident; the author instrumental in saving the rest of the palace. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- Acquiring is always secondary, and instrumental to the act of inquiring. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- He was looking fixedly into the darkness, very keen and alert and single in himself, instrumental. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Sarkoja, said Tars Tarkas, forty years ago you were instrumental in bringing about the torture and death of a woman named Gozava. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- This discovery and invention has been largely instrumental in the rapid development of sound recording. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- This brings us to the matter of instrumental values--topics studied because of some end beyond themselves. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- With respect to that, they are means, or instrumental values. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- This is a question which can be asked only about instrumental values. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Get lines for the dragging,' came the decisive, instrumental voice, that was full of the sound of the world. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- The distinction coincides with that sometimes made between intrinsic and instrumental values. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
Inputed by Camille