Button vs. Pin — What's the Difference?

In modern clothing and fashion design, a button is a small fastener, now most commonly made of plastic but also may be made of metal, wood, or seashell, that joins two pieces of fabric together. In archaeology, a button can be a significant artifact.

A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together, and can have three sorts of body: a shaft of a rigid inflexible material meant to be inserted in a slot, groove, or hole (as with pivots, hinges, and jigs); a shaft connected to a head and ending in a sharp tip meant to pierce one or more pieces of soft materials like cloth or paper (the straight or push pin); a single strip of a rigid but flexible material (e.g. a wire) whose length has been folded into parallel prongs in such fashion that the middle length of each curves towards the other so that, when anything is inserted between them, they act as a clamp (e.g.

A small disc or knob sewn on to a garment, either to fasten it by being pushed through a slit made for the purpose or for decoration.

An identifying number allocated to an individual by a bank or other organization and used for validating electronic transactions.

A small device on a piece of electrical or electronic equipment which is pressed to operate it.

Attach or fasten with a pin or pins

A badge bearing a design or slogan and pinned to clothing.

Hold (someone) firmly in a specified position so they are unable to move

Fasten (clothing) with buttons

Hinder or prevent (a piece or pawn) from moving because of the danger to a more valuable piece standing behind it along the line of an attack

Stop talking.

A short, straight, stiff piece of wire with a blunt head and a sharp point, used especially for fastening.

A generally disk-shaped fastener used to join two parts of a garment by fitting through a buttonhole or loop.

Something, such as a safety pin, that resembles such a piece of wire in shape or use.

Such an object used for decoration.

A whit; a jot

A push-button switch.

A thin rod for securing the ends of fractured bones.

The blunt tip of a fencing foil.

A peg for fixing the crown to the root of a tooth.

A fused metal or glass globule.

A cotter pin.

In graphical user interface systems, a well-defined area within the interface that is clicked to select a command.

The part of a key stem entering a lock.

In a hypertext database, an icon that when selected allows a user to view a particular associated object.

(Music) One of the pegs securing the strings and regulating their tension on a stringed instrument.

An immature, unexpanded mushroom.

(Nautical) A belaying pin.

The tip of a rattlesnake's rattle.

(Nautical) A thole pin.

A usually round flat badge that bears a design or printed information and is typically pinned to a garment

An ornament fastened to clothing by means of a clasp.

(Informal) The end of the chin, regarded as the point of impact for a punch.

A rolling pin.

In card games, especially poker, a plastic disk or similar marker placed in front of the person who is designated as dealer for a particular hand. At the start of each hand, the first card is dealt to the left of the button and the dealing of cards continues clockwise around the table.

One of the wooden clubs at which the ball is aimed in bowling.

The person who is in possession of this button.

A flagstick.

The position on the gaming table where this button is located.

See fall.

To fasten with buttons

Pins(Informal) The legs

To decorate or furnish with buttons.

(Electronics) A lead on a device that plugs into a socket to connect the device to a system.

(Informal) To close (the lips or mouth)

Any of the pegs on the platen of a printer, which engage holes at the edges of paper.

To be or be capable of being fastened with buttons

Any of the styluses that form a dot matrix on a printer.

A knob or disc that is passed through a loop or (buttonhole), serving as a fastener.

Any of the small metal prongs at the end of a connector that fit into the holes in a port.

A mechanical device meant to be pressed with a finger in order to open or close an electric circuit or to activate a mechanism.

To fasten or secure with or as if with a pin or pins.

(graphical user interface) An on-screen control that can be selected as an activator of an attached function.

To transfix.

(US) A badge worn on clothes, fixed with a pin through the fabric.

To place in a position of trusting dependence

(botany) A bud.

To hold fast; immobilize

The head of an unexpanded mushroom.

(Sports) To win a fall from in wrestling.

(slang) The clitoris.

To give (a woman) a fraternity pin in token of attachment.

(curling) The center (bullseye) of the house.

Having a grain suggestive of the heads of pins. Used of leather.

(fencing) The soft circular tip at the end of a foil.

A needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for fastening.

(poker) A plastic disk used to represent the person in last position in a poker game; also dealer's button.

A small nail with a head and a sharp point.

(poker) The player who is last to act after the flop, turn and river, who possesses the button.

A cylinder often of wood or metal used to fasten or as a bearing between two parts.

(archaic) A person who acts as a decoy.

The victory condition of holding the opponent's shoulders on the wrestling mat for a prescribed period of time.

A raised pavement marker to further indicate the presence of a pavement-marking painted stripe.

A slender object specially designed for use in a specific game or sport, such as skittles or bowling.

(aviation) The end of a runway.

A leg.

A methaqualone tablet (used as a recreational drug).

(electricity) Any of the individual connecting elements of a multipole electrical connector.

A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, such as a door.

A piece of jewellery that is attached to clothing with a pin.

A globule of metal remaining on an assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion.

(US) A simple accessory that can be attached to clothing with a pin or fastener, often round and bearing a design, logo or message, and used for decoration, identification or to show political affiliation, etc.

A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass.

(chess) Either a scenario in which moving a lesser piece to escape from attack would expose a more valuable piece to being taken instead, or one where moving a piece is impossible as it would place the king in check.

A small white blotch on a cat's coat.

(golf) The flagstick: the flag-bearing pole which marks the location of a hole

A unit of length equal to 12 inch.

(curling) The spot at the exact centre of the house (the target area)

(generally with the) The means for initiating a nuclear strike or similar cataclysmic occurrence.

(archery) The spot at the exact centre of the target, originally a literal pin that fastened the target in place.

(lutherie) In an instrument of the violin family, the near-semicircular shape extending from the top of the back plate of the instrument, meeting the heel of the neck.

(obsolete) A mood, a state of being.

(lutherie) endbutton, part of a violin-family instrument.

One of a row of pegs in the side of an ancient drinking cup to mark how much each person should drink.

Synonym of adjuster.

Caligo.

The least amount of care or interest; a whit or jot.

A thing of small value; a trifle.

(television) The punchy or suspenseful line of dialogue that concludes a scene.

A peg in musical instruments for increasing or relaxing the tension of the strings.

(comedy) The final joke at the end of a comedic act (such as a sketch, set, or scene).

(engineering) A short shaft, sometimes forming a bolt, a part of which serves as a journal.

(slang) A button man; a professional assassin.

The tenon of a dovetail joint.

The final segment of a rattlesnake's rattle.

A size of brewery cask, equal to half a firkin, or eighth of a barrel.

A clove of garlic.

(informal) A pinball machine.

(zoology) Pedicle; the attachment point for antlers in cervids.

(locksmithing) A small cylindrical object which blocks the rotation of a pin-tumbler lock when the incorrect key is inserted.

(transitive) To fasten with a button.

(often followed by a preposition such as "to" or "on") To fasten or attach (something) with a pin.

(intransitive) To be fastened by a button or buttons.

To cause (a piece) to be in a pin.

(informal) To stop talking.

(wrestling) To pin down (someone).

A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass.

To enclose; to confine; to pen; to pound.

A catch, of various forms and materials, used to fasten together the different parts of dress, by being attached to one part, and passing through a slit, called a buttonhole, in the other; - used also for ornament.

To attach (an icon, application, message etc.) to another item so that it persists.

A bud; a germ of a plant.

To fix (an array in memory, a security certificate, etc.) so that it cannot be modified.

A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, as a door.

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A globule of metal remaining on an assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion.

(transitive) To cause an analog gauge to reach the stop pin at the high end of the range.

To fasten with a button or buttons; to inclose or make secure with buttons; - often followed by up.

To peen.

To dress or clothe.

To inclose; to confine; to pen; to pound.

To be fastened by a button or buttons; as, the coat will not button.

To fasten with, or as with, a pin; to join; as, to pin a garment; to pin boards together.

A round fastener sewn to shirts and coats etc to fit through buttonholes

A piece of wood, metal, etc., generally cylindrical, used for fastening separate articles together, or as a support by which one article may be suspended from another; a peg; a bolt.

An electrical switch operated by pressing a button;

Especially, a small, pointed and headed piece of brass or other wire (commonly tinned), largely used for fastening clothes, attaching papers, etc.

Any of various plant parts that resemble buttons

Hence, a thing of small value; a trifle.

A female sexual organ homologous to the penis

That which resembles a pin in its form or use

Provide with buttons;

One of a row of pegs in the side of an ancient drinking cup to mark how much each man should drink.

Fasten with buttons;

The bull's eye, or center, of a target; hence, the center.

Mood; humor.

Caligo. See Caligo.

An ornament, as a brooch or badge, fastened to the clothing by a pin; as, a Masonic pin.

The leg; as, to knock one off his pins.

A piece of jewelry that is pinned onto the wearer's garment

When a wrestler's shoulders are forced to the mat

Small markers inserted into a surface to mark scores or define locations etc.

A number you choose and use to gain access to various accounts

Informal terms of the leg;

Axis consisting of a short shaft that supports something that turns

Cylindrical tumblers consisting of two parts that are held in place by springs; when they are aligned with a key the bolt can be thrown

Flagpole used to mark the position of the hole on a golf green

A small slender (often pointed) piece of wood or metal used to support or fasten or attach things

A holder attached to the gunwale of a boat that holds the oar in place and acts as a fulcrum for rowing

A club-shaped wooden object used in bowling; set up in groups as a target

To hold fast or prevent from moving;

Attach or fasten with pins

Pierce with a pin;

Immobilize a piece