Calamus vs. Quill — What's the Difference?

See sweet flag.

A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal-nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventually, the ballpoint pen.

The aromatic rhizome of the sweet flag, used for medicinal purposes and yielding an oil used in perfumery.

The hollow stemlike main shaft of a feather. Also called calamus.

Any of various chiefly tropical Asian climbing palms of the genus Calamus, having strong flexible stems used as a source of rattan.

Any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a bird.

See quill.

A writing pen made from the shaft of a feather.

The sweet flag, Acorus calamus.

A plectrum for a stringed instrument of the clavichord type.

(ornithology) A quill; the hard, horny, hollow, and more or less transparent part of the stem or scape of a feather.

A pipe having a hollow stem.

A fish of genus Calamus in family Sparidae; certain porgies.

A toothpick made from the stem of a feather.

A palm in genus Calamus, of pl=s.

One of the sharp hollow spines of a porcupine or hedgehog.

Synonym of fistula

A spindle or bobbin around which yarn is wound in weaving.

The indian cane, a plant of the Palm family. It furnishes the common rattan. See Rattan, and Dragon's blood.

A hollow shaft that rotates on a solid shaft when gears are engaged.

A species of Acorus (Acorus calamus), commonly called calamus, or sweet flag. The root has a pungent, aromatic taste, and is used in medicine as a stomachic; the leaves have an aromatic odor, and were formerly used instead of rushes to strew on floors.

To wind (thread or yarn) onto a quill.

The horny basal portion of a feather; the barrel or quill.

To make or press small ridges in (fabric).

Any tropical Asian palm of the genus Calamus; light tough stems are a source of rattan canes

To practice the art or craft of quilling.

The aromatic root of the sweet flag used medicinally

The lower shaft of a feather, specifically the region lacking barbs.

Perennial marsh plant having swordlike leaves and aromatic roots

A pen made from a feather.

A genus of Sparidae

(by extension) Any pen.

The hollow shaft of a feather

A sharply pointed, barbed, and easily detached needle-like structure that grows on the skin of a porcupine or hedgehog as a defense against predators.

A thin piece of bark, especially of cinnamon or cinchona, curled up into a tube.

The pen of a squid.

(music) The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.

(music) The tube of a musical instrument.

Something having the form of a quill, such as the fold or plain of a ruff, or (weaving) a spindle, or spool, upon which the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle.

To pierce or be pierced with quills.

(figuratively) To write.

To form fabric into small, rounded folds.

To decorate with quillwork.

To subject (a woman who is giving birth) to the practice of quilling (blowing pepper into her nose to induce or hasten labor).

One of the large feathers of a bird's wing, or one of the rectrices of the tail; also, the stock of such a feather.

A pen for writing made by sharpening and splitting the point or nib of the stock of a feather; as, history is the proper subject of his quill.

A spine of the hedgehog or porcupine.

The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.

Something having the form of a quill

A roll of dried bark; as, a quill of cinnamon or of cinchona.

To plaint in small cylindrical ridges, called quillings; as, to quill a ruffle.

To wind on a quill, as thread or yarn.

Pen made from a bird's feather

A stiff hollow protective spine on a porcupine or hedgehog

Any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a bird

The hollow shaft of a feather