instrumental: Meaning and Definition of

in•stru•men•tal

1. serving or acting as an instrument or means; useful; helpful.
2. performed on or written for a musical instrument or instruments: instrumental music.
3. of or pertaining to an instrument or tool.
1. (in certain inflected languages, as Old English and Russian) noting or pertaining to a case having as its distinctive function the indication of means or agency, as Old English beseah blīthe andweitan “looked with a happy countenance.”
2. noting the affix or other element characteristic of this case, or a word containing such an element.
3. similar to such a case form in function or meaning, as the Latin instrumental ablative, gladiō, “by means of a sword.”
4. (in case grammar) pertaining to the semantic role of a noun phrase that indicates the inanimate, nonvolitional, immediate cause of the action expressed by a verb, as the rock in The rock broke the window or in I broke the window with the rock.

1. the instrumental case.
2. a word in the instrumental case.
3. a construction of similar meaning.
2. a musical composition played by an instrument or a group of instruments. Cf. vocal (def. 8).