instrumental

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   serving or acting as a means or aid

   instrumental in solving the crime

2. 2
   adj

   relating to or designed for or performed on musical instruments

   instrumental compositions

3. 3
   adj

   Essential or central; of great importance or relevance.

   He was instrumental in conducting the business.

4. 4
   adj

   Serving as an instrument, medium, means, or agency.

   Maxwell started back to his study, feeling that kind of satisfaction which a man feels when he has been even partly instrumental in finding an unemployed person a remunerative position.

5. 5
   adj

   Pertaining to, made by, or prepared for an instrument, especially a musical instrument (rather than the human voice).

   instrumental music

6. 6
   adj

   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.

   the instrumental case

7. 7
   noun

   A composition written or performed without lyrics or singing, using a lead instrument to replace vocals.

   I recommend this album in the face of the fact that five of the eleven songs are the purest filler, dull instrumentals with a harmonica rifling over an indifferent rhythm section. The rest is magnificent […]

8. 8
   adj

   A pause in the vocals of a song, usually occurring midway through, in which a musical instrument replaces the vocals.

Etymology

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