instrumental

See also inštrumentál

English

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Etymology

From Middle English, from Medieval Latin instrumentalis, from instruere ("to build into, set up, construct, furnish," hence "to train"), from in- ("on") + struere ("to put together, arrange, pile up, build, construct"), from Proto-Indo-European *streu- (“to spread, extend, stretch out”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

instrumental (comparative more instrumental, superlative most instrumental)

1. Acting as an instrument; serving as a means; contributing to promote; conductive; helpful; serviceable; essential or central.

   He was instrumental in conducting the business.

   • The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more instrumental to the mouth — Shakespeare, Hamlet, I,ii
2. (music) Pertaining to, made by, or prepared for, an instrument, especially a musical instrument; as, instrumental music, distinguished from vocal music.
   • He defended the use of instrumental music in public worship. — Thomas Babington Macaulay
   • Sweet voices mix'd with instrumental sounds. — John Dryden
3. (grammar) Applied to a case expressing means or agency—and is generally indicated in English by by or with with the objective; 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. It continues to be used in Slavic languages.

Translations

Acting as an instrument; serving as a means; contributing to promote; conductive; helpful; serviceable; essential or central.

Chinese: Mandarin: 有幫助的 (zh), 可作為方法的 (zh), 可作為手段的 (zh)

music

Dutch: instrumentaal (nl) Finnish: instrumentaalinen (fi)

Lithuanian: instrumentinis (lt) m.

grammatical case

Finnish: instrumentaalinen (fi)

Lithuanian: įnagininkas (lt) m.

Derived terms

• instrumental error

Related terms

• instrumentation
• instrumentality
• instrumentive

Noun

instrumental (countable and uncountable; plural instrumentals)

1. (uncountable, grammar) The instrumental case.
2. (countable, music) A composition without lyrics.

Translations

grammatical case

Armenian: գործիական (hy) (gorçiakan) Bosnian: instrumental (bs) m. Bulgarian: творителен падеж (tvorítelen padéž) m. Croatian: instrumental (hr) m. Czech: sedmý pád (cs) m. Dutch: instrumentalis (nl) Finnish: instrumentaali (fi) French: instrumental (fr) m. Georgian: მოქმედებითი (ka) (mok'medebit'i) German: Instrumental-Kasus m. Greek: πειραματική φωνητική (el) f., εργαστηριακή φωνητική (el) f.

Hungarian: eszközhatározó eset (using -val or -vel endings) Icelandic: tækisfall (is) n. Japanese: 造格 (ぞうかく, zoukakú), 具格 (ぐかく, gukakú) Lithuanian: įnagininkas (lt) m. Polish: narzędnik (pl) m. Russian: творительный падеж (tvorítel’nyj padéž) m. Slovak: siedmy pád m., inštrumentál m. Slovene: orodnik (sl) m. Spanish: caso instrumental (es) m. Turkish: enstrümental (tr)

composition without lyrics

Czech: instrumentálka (cs) f. Finnish: instrumentaali (fi)

Korean: 기악 (ko) (giak)

External links

• instrumental in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• instrumental in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

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French

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA: /ɛ̃s.tʁy.mɑ̃.tal/

Adjective

instrumental m. (f. instrumentale, m. plural instrumentaux, f. plural instrumentales)

1. instrumental

Noun

instrumental m. (plural instrumentaux)

1. (grammar) the instrumental case

See also

• génitif
• nominatif
• accusatif
• vocatif
• accusatif
• locatif

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Serbo-Croatian

Noun

ȉnstrumentāl m. (Cyrillic spelling и̏нструмента̄л)

1. the instrumental case

Declension

    declension of instrumental

	singular	plural
nominative	instrumental	instrumentali
genitive	instrumentala	instrumentala
dative	instrumentalu	instrumentalima
accusative	instrumental	instrumentale
vocative	instrumentale	instrumentali
locative	instrumentalu	instrumentalima
instrumental	instrumentalom	instrumentalima

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Spanish

Adjective

instrumental m. and f. (plural instrumentales)

1. instrumental