instrumental

Pluralinstrumentals

1. 1
   adjective

   Very important in helping something happen or succeed.

   Her support was instrumental in getting the new park built.

   The coach was instrumental in the team's best season in years.

   Similarcrucial, vital, pivotal, essential, key

   Oppositeinsignificant, unimportant, peripheral, incidental

   Note
2. 2
   adjective

   Working as a tool or a way to get something done.

   Like a key: not important by itself, but it opens doors to other things.

   Language is instrumental: we use it to share our thoughts with others.

   For some people, money is not a goal but something instrumental, a tool for living.

   Similarintermediary, functional

   Note
3. 3
   adjective

   Made or played with musical instruments, not with singing.

   She likes instrumental music when she studies because there are no words to distract her.

   The band opened the show with a long instrumental piece.

   Oppositevocal, choral

   Note
4. 4
   nouncountable

   A piece of music with no singing or words.

   The album's last track is an instrumental, so you can just enjoy the guitar.

   The DJ played two instrumentals while the singer rested her voice.

   Note
5. 5
   adjective

   A part in the middle of a song where the singing stops and the instruments play alone.

   During the instrumental, the guitar player stepped forward for a short solo.

   The crowd clapped along when the singing stopped for the instrumental.

   Note
6. 6
   adjective

   Describing a word form in some languages that shows the tool or way something is done.

   Like English adding 'with' before a word: some languages change the word's ending instead.

   In Russian class, we learned the instrumental case to say what tool you use.

   Czech adds an instrumental ending to a word like 'pen' to mean 'with a pen'.

   Note
7. 7
   noun

   A special word form in some languages that shows what tool was used to do something.

   In today's lesson we practiced the instrumental with words for tools.

   She always forgets the endings for the instrumental when she speaks Russian.

   Note

Showing meanings only. Show all 7