instrumentality

instrumentality

English

Etymology

instrumental +‎ -ity

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnstɹʊmɛnˈtalɪti/

Noun

instrumentality (countable and uncountable, plural instrumentalities)

1. (uncountable) The quality or condition of being instrumental; serving a purpose, being useful.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Folio Society 2008, p. 294:

     In a later vision the Saviour revealed to her in detail the ‘great design’ which he wished to establish through her instrumentality.

2. (countable, law) A governmental organ with a specific purpose.
   • 1994, Title 17 of the United States Code, §104A(a)(1)(B):

     Any work in which the copyright was ever owned or administered by the Alien Property Custodian and in which the restored copyright would be owned by a government or instrumentality thereof, is not a restored work.

3. (countable) Something that is instrumental; an instrument.
   • 1838, American Anti-Slavery Society, The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4‎:

     He spoke of the various instrumentalities which were now employed for the conversion of the world.

   • 1873, Helen Hunt Jackson, Bits About Home Matters‎:

     Delays and failures will only set her to casting about for new instrumentalities.

   • 1914, Samuel F. B. Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals‎:

     God works by instrumentalities, and he has wonderfully thus far interposed in keeping evils that I feared in abeyance.