instrumentality

Noun

instrumentality (countable and uncountable, plural instrumentalities)

1. (uncountable) The condition or quality of being instrumental; being useful; serving a purpose.
   • In a later vision the Saviour revealed to her in detail the 'great design' which he wished to establish through her instrumentality.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. […]...
2. (countable) Something that is instrumental; an instrument.
   • He spoke of the various instrumentalities which were now employed for the conversion of the world.1838, American Anti-Slavery Society, The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4
   • Delays and failures will only set her to casting about for new instrumentalities.1873, Helen Hunt Jackson, Bits About Home Matters
3. (countable) A governmental organ with a specific purpose.
   • 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.1994, Title 17 of the United States Code, §104A(a)(2)
4. The property of being in the instrumental case.