INSTRUMENTALITY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Instrumentality

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/ˌɪnstrəmɛntˈælɪti/ Listen

Instrumentality

noun

(pl. instrumentalities)

A subsidiary organ of government created for a special purpose. "He studied the French instrumentalities for law enforcement"

The quality of being instrumental for some purpose.

An artifact (or system of artifacts) that is instrumental in accomplishing some end. Synonym: instrumentation.

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Etymology of 'Instrumentality'

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"Instrumentality" Quotes from Famous Books

... rather, they infuse the spirit of the community at large into the army, and retain it there. Amongst democratic nations the private soldiers remain most like civilians: upon them the habits of the nation have the firmest hold, and public opinion most influence. It is by the instrumentality of the private soldiers especially that it may be possible to infuse into a democratic army the love of freedom and the respect of rights, if these principles have once been successfully inculcated on the people at large. ...

— Democracy In America, Volume 2 (of 2) • Alexis de Tocqueville

... thought had betrayed the place to the raiders, and Nehemiah's instrumentality was never discovered. The post-office appointment was bestowed upon his rival for the position, and it was thought somewhat strange that he should endure the defeat with such exemplary resignation. No one seemed ...

— The Moonshiners At Hoho-Hebee Falls - 1895 • Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)

... make him a proficient in the business. He may be an ignorant dupe—a mere tool of the designing, the "cats paw" of some respectable blackleg, who thinks to cover his own crimes, by exciting public opinion against me, through an apparently respectable instrumentality. But I did not wish to bandy words with him, being impressed with the propriety of a resolution I made while a gambler, that it is only throwing away time to attempt to account for the different actions and opinions of weak and prejudiced minds; and ...

— Secret Band of Brothers • Jonathan Harrington Green

... was committed in not throwing at least twenty thousand men into Ireland with such means as were disposable. Two years later, De Tourville had been conquered in the famous day of La Hogue, and the remains of the troops which had landed were enabled to return through the instrumentality of a treaty which required their ...

— The Art of War • Baron Henri de Jomini

... crime, and of course to diminish the number of criminals; if education is the most efficient means for securing these results; if this education must be universal in order to be thoroughly effective; if the state is the only agent or instrumentality of sufficient power to establish schools and furnish education for all; and if general taxation is the only means which the state itself can command, is not every inhabitant justly required and morally bound to contribute to the support of a system ...

— Thoughts on Educational Topics and Institutions • George S. Boutwell

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