Instrument

How to spell instrument

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce instrument

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does instrument mean?

1. nounA precise tool or device used to carry out a particular task, especially in science, medicine, or measurement.
2. nounAn object designed to produce musical sound, such as a violin, piano, or trumpet.
3. nounA formal legal document, such as a contract, deed, or will, that records a binding arrangement.

Instrument in a sentence

• The surgeon reached for a sterilised instrument on the tray.

• She learned to play a brass instrument at school.

• The solicitor drafted a legal instrument to transfer the property.

• Each instrument in the lab is calibrated before every test.

• The orchestra tuned every instrument before the concert began.

• The will is a binding instrument once it has been signed and witnessed.

Where does instrument come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin instrumentum, which meant a tool, an implement, or equipment for getting a job done. That noun was built on the verb instruere, meaning to build up, to arrange, or to fit out, and by extension to teach; instruere itself joins the prefix in- (toward or into) with struere, meaning to pile up or to construct. The same struere root sits behind a whole family of English words, including structure, construct, and destroy, so the central idea of building or arranging carries through all of them. English took instrument in through Old French in the 1300s, where it covered both physical tools and the means by which something is accomplished. The musical sense and the legal sense (a formal document that puts an arrangement into effect) both grew naturally from that original notion of a means to an end. The spelling stays close to the Latin original, and the tricky part for writers is the unstressed middle, the -tru- and the schwa before -ment, which the ear does not clearly separate.

How the word is built

• in- (toward, into)
• stru (build, arrange)
• -ment (noun suffix denoting a means or result)