verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To make into an instrument for achieving a goal. transitive

   "[…] they also instrumentalize race to reinstate nostalgic, vanguard notions of political activism […]"

2. 2
   To transcribe for instrumental execution a piece of music written for the human voice transitive

Antonyms

All antonyms

deinstrumentalize

Example

More examples

"[…] they also instrumentalize race to reinstate nostalgic, vanguard notions of political activism […]"

Etymology

From instrumental + -ize.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.