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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:

It’s hard when you’ve spent 32 years of your adult life with Peter Buck — it’s hard to find someone who has that same enthusiasm and love of the instrument.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

It would also examine why the Cali Fund -- a UN financial instrument launched in February 2025 aiming to attract $1 billion a year in corporate contributions -- had raised only $6,000.

From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026

Another important instrument will be a short-period seismometer, designed to detect vibrations and seismic activity, including moonquakes.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026

The longer the life of a debt instrument, the more investors are left exposed to changes in interest rates.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

The flautist put down his instrument and sang out a Sufi chant.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

Webb's exceptionally sensitive instruments made this possible by detecting extremely small changes in the object's brightness as different parts of its atmosphere rotated into view.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026

Using calipers, instruments designed to measure objects with great precision, the researchers compared the sizes of preserved crayfish.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

The team expects future observations using multiple wavelengths and similarly precise instruments to uncover a wider range of elements in exoplanet atmospheres.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026

Shylock’s pound of flesh invokes this divine commandment, which would have been familiar to everyone in early modern Europe as governments began using bonds as financial instruments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

Miss Mathis pointed to a display of musical instruments hanging on the wall.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

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

From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026

I worked at the facility from 1973 to 1976, and Metro’s 1000-series cars were instrumented and running around loops to identify problem areas.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 27, 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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