instrumentality

From instrumental +‎ -ity.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɪnstɹʊmɛnˈtælɪti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ælɪti
• Hyphenation: in‧stru‧ment‧al‧i‧ty

instrumentality (countable and uncountable, plural instrumentalities)

1. (uncountable) The condition or quality of being instrumental; being useful; serving a purpose.
   • 1902, William James, “Lectures XIV and XV: The Value of Saintliness”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. , →OCLC, page 344:

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

2. (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.

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

     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.