| Definitions | | instrumental |
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noun
- (context, uncountable, grammar) The instrumental case.
- (context, countable, music) A composition without lyrics.
Translations: - French: instrumental(fr)m
- German: Instrumental-Kasus
- Spanish: caso instrumental(es)m
adjective
- Acting as an instrument; serving as a means; contributing to promote; conductive; helpful; serviceable; essential or central.
- He was in conducting the business.
- Quotations
- The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more to the mouth — Shakespeare, Hamlet, I,ii
- (Music): Pertaining to, made by, or prepared for, an instrument, especially a musical instrument; as, music, distinguished from vocal music.
- Quotations
- He defended the use of music in public worship. — Macaulay
- Sweet voices mix'd with sounds. — Dryden
- (Grammar): Applied to a case expressing means or agency"and is generally indicated in English by by or with with the objective; as, the 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. It continues to be used in Slavic languages.
Etymology: From Middle English < Medieval Latin instrumentalis < instruere ("to build into, set up, construct, furnish," hence "to train") < in- ("on") + struere ("to put together, arrange, pile up, build, construct") < Proto-Indo-European Wiktionary Appendix:Proto-Indo-European roots, - streu- ("to spread, extend, stretch out").
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