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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.

See Examples For:

Activists, many of them associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, mounted a backlash to psychiatry as an instrument of social control.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

A key part of the discovery came from the Juno Waves instrument, which was designed and built by physicists at the University of Iowa.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 29, 2026

The instrument had a key role to play in Michael's reinvention from teen pop idol to serious solo artist.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026

“What was interesting about this conglomeration is that nobody was feeling territorial or proprietary about an instrument or a contribution.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

The smaller the instrument, the higher the pitch, for example.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

I got to spend time in David Lynch’s art studio, and we jammed together on weird instruments.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026

But INES, Germany's gas storage industry association, said missing the deadline was a "clear signal that the instruments for ensuring winter preparedness need to be further developed".

From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026

"There's so many people, from the timber company, to the tyre company, to a friend who makes our banners, to everyone else who has chipped in, lending us instruments, donating costumes," he said.

From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026

Pagers, or beepers, are dated instruments that can receive signals but not transmit them.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

Scientists are often experts in their field, the ones who know which instruments to use and what the data from those instruments mean.

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

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

From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026

Then we browsed the For You page feed for each sockpuppet, recording what we saw via WebArchive.page, a specially instrumented web browser that archives all the data involved in a browsing session locally.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 30, 2023

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

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


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