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Definitions

instrument

[in-struh-muhnt] / ˈɪn strə mənt /




Usage

What are other ways to say instrument? An instrument is anything used in doing a certain type of work or producing a certain result, especially such as requires delicacy, accuracy, or precision: surgical or musical instruments. A tool is a contrivance held in and worked by the hand, for assisting the work of (especially) mechanics or skilled laborers: a carpenter's tools. An implement is any tool or contrivance designed or used for a particular purpose: agricultural implements. A utensil is especially an article for domestic use: kitchen utensils. 

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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"It's this instrument of resistance… where we can really share friendship, love and our voices can be heard," Steve Happi, the former inmate who co-founded Jail Time Records, tells the BBC's Talking Movies programme.

From BBC Jul. 26, 2026

The rule of law is reduced to a mere instrument of domination if the law isn’t grounded in reason and reality.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 24, 2026

“You can’t rule that out that she would have been holding the instrument that caused either of those wounds?” the attorney asked.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 24, 2026

A photographer and fixture in the L.A. punk scene by 14, the fact that she didn’t play an instrument was a minor hurdle when she joined L7 in 1986.

From Salon Jul. 21, 2026

They flew close to the ground using instrument read-outs alone—they couldn’t see anything outside their windows.

From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone

The comet was exceptionally difficult to detect with these instruments.

From Science Daily Jul. 24, 2026

Counterterrorism tools are among the most powerful instruments the U.S. government possesses.

From Salon Jul. 23, 2026

But private money managers have been conjuring up new debt instruments faster than thinly stretched state insurance commissioners can rein them in, and the regulatory process sometimes resembles a game of whac-a-mole.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 21, 2026

This series is also a reminder that long before the founding, it was the people who made constitutional and legal change with their own hands, through their own instruments of government.

From Slate Jul. 20, 2026

There are many creative ways to use these inexpensive instruments to help and inspire you, and which will fire up a child’s imagination.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

The Blue Origin spacecraft will also carry an instrumented lunar surface spacesuit mass simulator.

From Science Daily Jul. 23, 2026

Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, a U.S. naval facility, is the world's largest instrumented, "multi-dimensional" testing and training missile range, according to the U.S.

From Fox News Feb. 22, 2022

The initial design for the lab, to be built over the next 5 years at the University of Idaho, calls for 24 richly instrumented soil columns topped with airtight chambers for vegetation.

From Science Magazine Oct. 12, 2021

"This is the most heavily instrumented vehicle we will ever fly so we will get a tremendous amount of engineering data on vibration and temperature and stress, acoustics," said Mr Shannon.

From BBC Mar. 18, 2021

We are unlikely to determine the answer to this question without landing instrumented space vehicles on the Titanian surface.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

“We are instrumenting the car in a way that is overloading the driver just like we were overloading the helicopter pilots,” said Strayer, director of the university’s Center for the Prevention of Distracted Driving.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 6, 2022

This can be a result of budgetary constraints, the difficulty of instrumenting treacherous volcanoes and, in some cases, red tape preventing the placement of sensors in wilderness areas.

From New York Times Nov. 9, 2021

“And we need to rethink what this instrumenting of the world — all that data being generated and collected — means for privacy and how all this data is used.”

From New York Times Aug. 4, 2015

Yet little has been done to probe the underlying crust and mantle, mainly because instrumenting the entire state is so expensive.

From Scientific American Nov. 5, 2013

Niels and I get to work carefully instrumenting the sleep logger and attaching it to the bird.

From New York Times Apr. 15, 2011




Vocabulary lists containing instrument


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