instrument
Americannoun
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instruments
plural
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a mechanical tool or implement, especially one used for delicate or precision work.
surgical instruments.
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a contrivance or apparatus for producing musical sounds.
a stringed instrument.
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a means by which something is effected or done; agency.
an instrument of government.
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a device for measuring the present value of a quantity under observation.
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a mechanical or electronic measuring device, especially one used in navigation.
landing a plane by instruments.
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a formal legal document, as a draft or bond.
negotiable instruments.
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a person used by another merely as a means to some private end; tool or dupe.
verb (used with object)
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instruments,
present (3rd person singular)
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instrumented,
past participle, past
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instrumenting
present participle
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to equip with instruments, as a machine or manufacturing process.
to instrument a space vehicle.
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to arrange a composition for musical instruments; orchestrate.
noun
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a mechanical implement or tool, esp one used for precision work
surgical instrument
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music any of various contrivances or mechanisms that can be played to produce musical tones or sounds
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an important factor or agency in something
her evidence was an instrument in his arrest
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informal a person used by another to gain an end; dupe; tool
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a measuring device, such as a pressure gauge or ammeter
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a device or system for use in navigation or control, esp of aircraft
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( as modifier )
instrument landing
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a formal legal document
verb
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another word for orchestrate
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to equip with instruments
Usage
What are other ways to say instrument? An instrument is a mechanical contrivance, especially one used for delicate or precision work. When should you use this noun over tool, implement, or utensil? Learn more on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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instrumentsimple
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instrumentssimple
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have instrumentedperfect
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has instrumentedperfect
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am instrumentingprogressive
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are instrumentingprogressive
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is instrumentingprogressive
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have been instrumentingperfect progressive
-
has been instrumentingperfect progressive
Past
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instrumentedsimple
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had instrumentedperfect
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was instrumentingprogressive
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were instrumentingprogressive
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had been instrumentingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of instrument
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Latin instrūmentum equipment, equivalent to instrū-, stem of instruere “to equip” ( see instruct) + -mentum -ment
Explanation
An instrument is usually a tool for making music, like a piano or a guitar, but it can also be used for almost any kind of tool or thing you use to get something done. A thermometer is an instrument for measuring temperature. A violin is an instrument used for making music. Recent economic woes were blamed on the abuse of certain financial instruments, which is just a fancy way of saying "deals." Your eye is a very sensitive light-collecting instrument, though you'll need a man-made instrument, like an X-ray telescope, if you want to see light outside of the visible spectrum.
Vocabulary lists containing instrument
Macbeth's "Is this a dagger..." soliloquy
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List 3
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John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961
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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:
Dulli told Salon that he’s been mindful about taking care of his instrument.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2026
Larson’s instrument has been the Social Security 2100 Act, which he first introduced in 2017.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
A melodica is a handheld instrument played by blowing air into a reed, which is attached to a keyboard.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Without the "Big Bang" power saving effort, the Voyager team would have needed to turn off another instrument aboard Voyager 2 before the end of 2026.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026
Descriptions of how each articulation is done cannot be given here, because they depend too much on the particular instrument that is making the music.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
Sentinel-1 is especially valuable for monitoring remote glaciers because its radar instruments can collect observations both day and night and can see through cloud cover.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026
A line of industrial robots are waiting to be programmed, and in another part of the classroom, students are trying to develop robotic medical instruments.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
Then comes a bevy of scientific instruments, a small nuclear engine, and shiny orange foam to keep the instruments warm in space.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
FRIB's specialized instruments and capabilities allowed the team to separate two distinct decay states and examine them individually.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
These instruments would have been played both for the enjoyment of the crew and to provide them a rhythm as they raised and lowered the ship’s sails.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
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
"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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
