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Pen vs. Stylus — What's the Difference?

Pen vs. Stylus — What's the Difference?

Difference Between Pen and Stylus

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Pen

A pen is a common writing instrument used to apply ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Historically, reed pens, quill pens, and dip pens were used, with a nib dipped in ink.

Stylus

A stylus (plural styli or styluses) is a writing utensil or a small tool for some other form of marking or shaping, for example, in pottery. It can also be a computer accessory that is used to assist in navigating or providing more precision when using touchscreens.

Pen

An instrument for writing or drawing with ink, typically consisting of a metal nib or ball, or a nylon tip, fitted into a metal or plastic holder.

Stylus

A hard point, typically of diamond or sapphire, following a groove in a record and transmitting the recorded sound for reproduction.

Pen

The tapering cartilaginous internal shell of a squid.
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Stylus

An ancient writing implement, consisting of a small rod with a pointed end for scratching letters on wax-covered tablets, and a blunt end for obliterating them.

Pen

A small enclosure in which sheep, pigs, or other farm animals are kept
A sheep pen

Stylus

A sharp, pointed instrument used for writing, marking, or engraving.

Pen

(in the West Indies) a farm or plantation.

Stylus

(Computers) A pointed instrument used as an input device on a pressure-sensitive screen.

Pen

A female swan.

Stylus

A phonograph needle.

Pen

Short for penitentiary (sense 1)
You could get twenty years in a federal pen for shooting your mouth off like that

Stylus

A sharp, pointed tool used for cutting the jagged grooves that record sound on a phonograph record.

Pen

Write or compose
Olivia penned award-winning poetry

Stylus

(writing) An ancient writing implement consisting of a small rod with a pointed end for scratching letters on clay, wax-covered tablets or other surfaces, and a blunt end for obliterating them.

Pen

Put or keep (an animal) in a pen
It was the practice to pen the sheep for clipping
These cattle need to be penned in at night

Stylus

A small implement with a pointed end used for engraving and tracing.

Pen

A ballpoint pen.

Stylus

(computing) A small device resembling a pen used to input handwritten text or drawings directly into an electronic device with a touch-sensitive screen.

Pen

A fountain pen.

Stylus

A hard-pointed pen-shaped instrument for marking on stencils used in a mimeograph machine.

Pen

A pen point.

Stylus

A hard point, typically of diamond or sapphire, following a groove in a phonograph and transmitting the recorded sound for reproduction.

Pen

A penholder and its pen point.

Stylus

A pointed device formerly used to produce a groove in a record when recording sound.

Pen

A quill.

Stylus

A tool for making small dots on a piece of heavy paper, used to produce Braille writing for the blind by hand.

Pen

An instrument for writing regarded as a means of expression
"Tyranny has no enemy so formidable as the pen" (William Cobbett).

Stylus

(botany) style.

Pen

A writer or an author
A hired pen.

Stylus

That needle-shaped part at the tip of the playing arm of phonograph which sits in the groove of a phonograph record while it is turning, to detect the undulations in the phonograph groove and convert them into vibrations which are transmitted to a system (since 1920 electronic) which converts the signal into sound; also called needle. The stylus is frequently composed of a hard metal or of diamond.

Pen

A style of writing
Wrote plays with a witty pen.

Stylus

The needle-like device used to cut the grooves which record the sound on the original disc during recording of a phonograph record; it is moved by the vibrations given to the diaphragm by a sound, and produces the indented record.

Pen

A pen-shaped device containing something other than ink
An insulin pen.
A vaporizer pen.

Stylus

A pen-shaped pointing device used to specify the cursor position on a graphics tablet.

Pen

Any of various other pen-shaped devices, such as a laser pointer.

Stylus

A sharp pointed device attached to the cartridge of a record player

Pen

The chitinous internal shell of a squid.

Stylus

A pointed tool for writing or drawing or engraving;
He drew the design on the stencil with a steel stylus

Pen

A pen shell.

Pen

Pens(Archaic) The primary feathers or wings of a bird.

Pen

A fenced enclosure for animals.

Pen

The animals kept in such an enclosure.

Pen

Any of various enclosures, such as a bullpen or playpen, used for a variety of purposes.

Pen

A roofed dock for submarines.

Pen

A female swan.

Pen

A penitentiary; a prison.

Pen

To write or compose
Penned a letter.

Pen

To confine in or as if in a pen.

Pen

An enclosure (enclosed area) used to contain domesticated animals, especially sheep or cattle.
There are two steers in the third pen.

Pen

(slang) Penitentiary, i.e. a state or federal prison for convicted felons.
They caught him with a stolen horse, and he wound up in the pen again.

Pen

(baseball) The bullpen.
Two righties are up in the pen.

Pen

A tool, originally made from a feather but now usually a small tubular instrument, containing ink used to write or make marks.
He took notes with a pen.

Pen

(figurative) A writer, or their style.
He has a sharp pen.

Pen

(colloquial) Marks of ink left by a pen.
He's unhappy because he got pen on his new shirt.

Pen

A light pen.

Pen

(zoology) The internal cartilage skeleton of a squid, shaped like a pen.

Pen

A feather, especially one of the flight feathers of a bird, angel etc.

Pen

(poetic) A wing.

Pen

A female swan.

Pen

Penalty.

Pen

(transitive) To enclose in a pen.

Pen

(transitive) To write (an article, a book, etc.).

Pen

A feather.

Pen

A wing.

Pen

An instrument used for writing with ink, formerly made of a reed, or of the quill of a goose or other bird, but now also of other materials, as of steel, gold, etc. Also, originally, a stylus or other instrument for scratching or graving.
Graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock.

Pen

Fig.: A writer, or his style; as, he has a sharp pen.

Pen

The internal shell of a squid.

Pen

A female swan; - contrasted with cob, the male swan.

Pen

A small inclosure; as, a pen for sheep or for pigs.
My father stole two geese out of a pen.

Pen

A penitentiary[6]; a prison.

Pen

To write; to compose and commit to paper; to indite; to compose; as, to pen a sonnet.

Pen

To shut up, as in a pen or cage; to confine in a small inclosure or narrow space; to coop up, or shut in; to inclose.
Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve.

Pen

A writing implement with a point from which ink flows

Pen

An enclosure for confining livestock

Pen

A portable enclosure in which babies may be left to play

Pen

A correctional institution for those convicted of major crimes

Pen

Female swan

Pen

Produce a literary work;
She composed a poem
He wrote four novels

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