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Glite Dictionary
instrumental role

instrumental role

1 7.5
A thing used by a person to do something, like a key used to open a door
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : rol instrumental
  • From the start, collaboration played an instrumental role as we moved from vision and conceptualization to planning and finally implementation.
  • play an instrumental role

Hollywood has played an instrumental role in changing public perception and views around gays, gay marriage, trans community, etcetera.

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Examples

  • Recognition of this reality motivated Iran to play an instrumental role in efforts to stabilize Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Teachers play an instrumental role in helping students develop their critical thinking skills.

  • Women, in other words, played the instrumental role of improving the educational experience of men.

    Harvard University

  • Teachers play an instrumental role in helping students develop the ability to move between mini-c and little-c creativity.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The citizen suit provisions also play an instrumental role by allowing citizens to bring suit and get injunctions against potential violators of the Act.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Thus, it is presumed by some scholars looking at large historical data sets that environmental issues are not important enough in world politics to play an instrumental role in conflict resolution.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Hollywood has played an instrumental role in changing public perception and views around gays, gay marriage, trans community, etcetera.

    Variety

  • The agreement is also heralded as a triumph for the World Bank, which played an instrumental role in its negotiation during the height of the Cold War.

    Academic text (2008)

  • ASTAE can claim at least one notable success so far: the instrumental role it played in the development of the World Bank's first free-standing renewable energy loan.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Indeed, as Justice Brennan observes, the United States played an instrumental role in the criminal prosecution of Nazi officials who experimented with human subjects during the Second World War.

    Academic text (1999)

Synonyms

instrument
vsinstrumental role
  • Specialized
4 8.1

The thing someone uses to do an action, like a knife when cutting

has identical meaning but is a two-word technical term

Surface Forms

instrumental role singular
instrumental roles plural

Morphology

instrumental + role

The meaning 'a role that is instrumental (helpful or crucial) in producing an outcome' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'instrumental' (helpful/necessary) with 'role' (function or duty). This straightforward compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows normal English adjective + noun semantics, so a B1 learner who knows both words would grasp the MWE's basic meaning.

Etymology

The term instrumental role comes from the picture of someone using an instrumental object, like a key or hammer, to do a job, and role means the part that object plays. So, 'instrumental role' means the thing someone uses to make something happen.