instrumental
adjective
Did you know?
An instrument is a tool, something used to construct. It's often a tool for making music. A musical saw happens to be a carpenter's tool that can be played with a violin bow (though you probably wouldn't want to play a wrench or a pair of pliers). The musical meanings of instrumental, as in "It starts with an instrumental piece" or "a jazz instrumental", are common. But the meanings "helpful", "useful", and "essential", as in "He was instrumental in getting my book published", are just as common.
Examples of instrumental in a Sentence
Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 27 June 2025
The five-part series will offer a kind of historical and musical tour of the five boroughs as LL Cool J visits the neighborhoods and meets with the MCs and producers who were instrumental to hip-hop’s rise.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 27 June 2025
At companies like Stripe and Airbnb, early TPMs were instrumental in translating vision into execution.
—Abdo Riani, Forbes.com, 27 June 2025
Moyers was instrumental in setting up the task forces that led to Johnson’s creation of the Great Society programs of the 1960s.
—Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 26 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for instrumental
Cite this Entry
“Instrumental.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/instrumental. Accessed 6 Jul. 2025.
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instrumental
adjective
Medical Definition
instrumental
adjective
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