Definition of "instrumental" []

• Serving as a means or agency; implemental: was instrumental in solving the crime. (adjective)
• Of, relating to, or accomplished with an instrument or tool. (adjective)
• Music Performed on or written for an instrument. (adjective)
• Grammar Of, relating to, or being the case used typically to express means, agency, or accompaniment. (adjective)
• Of or relating to instrumentalism. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The term instrumental rationality is used because the definition views the actor as pursuing goals, to which he or she is committed for reasons irrelevant to the definition."
• "O'Neill (2000) situates the Kantian account of reason against three alternatives, which she labels the instrumental, the communitarian, and the perfectionist."
• "Composed for sampler (Gosfield), wailing guitar (Roger Kleier), and virtuoso drums/percussion (Joe Berardi), the musical feel was of a powerful but cruder variation of the above Sparks, this time in a rock-inflected, heavy metal style, like a long Grateful Dead instrumental from the 70's pounding relentlessly to conclusion."