Tooth vs. Dent — What's the Difference?

A tooth (plural teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, tearing food, for defensive purposes, to intimidate other animals often including their own, or to carry prey or their young.

A depression in a surface made by pressure or a blow

Each of a set of hard, bony enamel-coated structures in the jaws of most vertebrates, used for biting and chewing

(Informal) A significant, usually diminishing effect or impression

A projecting part on a tool or other instrument, especially one of a series that function or engage together, such as a cog on a gearwheel or a point on a saw.

(Informal) Meaningful progress; headway

An appetite or liking for a particular thing

See tooth.

Roughness given to a surface to allow colour or glue to adhere

To make a dent in.

One of a set of hard, bonelike structures in the mouths of vertebrates, usually attached to the jaw or rooted in sockets and typically composed of a core of soft pulp surrounded by a layer of hard dentin that is coated with cementum or enamel at the crown and used for biting or chewing food or as a means of attack or defense.

To become dented

A similar hard projection in an invertebrate, such as one of a set of projections on the hinge of a bivalve or on the radula of a snail.

A shallow deformation in the surface of an object, produced by an impact.

A projecting part resembling a tooth in shape or function, as on a comb, gear, or saw.

(figurative) A minor impact or effect made upon something.

A small, notched projection along a margin, especially of a leaf. Also called dent2.

A type of maize/corn with a relatively soft outer hull, and a soft type of starch that shrinks at maturity to leave an indentation in the surface of the kernel.

A rough surface, as of paper or metal.

A sudden negative change, such as loss, damage, weakening, consumption or diminution, especially one produced by an external force, event or action

Often teeth Something that injures or destroys with force

(engineering) A tooth, as of a card, a gear wheel, etc.

Teeth Effective means of enforcement; muscle

(weaving) A slot or a wire in a reed

To furnish (a tool, for example) with teeth.

(transitive) To impact something, producing a dent.

To make a jagged edge on.

(intransitive) To develop a dent or dents.

To become interlocked; mesh.

A stroke; a blow.

A hard, calcareous structure present in the mouth of many vertebrate animals, generally used for eating.

A slight depression, or small notch or hollow, made by a blow or by pressure; an indentation.

A sharp projection on the blade of a saw or similar implement.

A tooth, as of a card, a gear wheel, etc.

A projection on the edge of a gear that meshes with similar projections on adjacent gears, or on the circumference of a cog that engages with a chain.

To make a dent upon; to indent.

Of a rope, the stickiness when in contact with another rope as in a knot.

An appreciable consequence (especially a lessening);

(zoology) A projection or point in other parts of the body resembling the tooth of a vertebrate animal.

A depression scratched or carved into a surface

(botany) A pointed projection from the margin of a leaf.

An impression in a surface (as made by a blow)

(animation) The rough surface of some kinds of cel or other films that allows better adhesion of artwork.

Make a depression into;

(figurative) Liking, fondness (compare toothsome).

(algebraic geometry) An irreducible component of a comb that intersects the handle in exactly one point, that point being distinct from the unique point of intersection for any other tooth of the comb.

To provide or furnish with teeth.

To indent; to jag.

To lock into each other, like gear wheels.

One of the hard, bony appendages which are borne on the jaws, or on other bones in the walls of the mouth or pharynx of most vertebrates, and which usually aid in the prehension and mastication of food.

Fig.: Taste; palate.

Any projection corresponding to the tooth of an animal, in shape, position, or office; as, the teeth, or cogs, of a cogwheel; a tooth, prong, or tine, of a fork; a tooth, or the teeth, of a rake, a saw, a file, a card.

A projecting member resembling a tenon, but fitting into a mortise that is only sunk, not pierced through.

An angular or prominence on any edge; as, a tooth on the scale of a fish, or on a leaf of a plant

Any hard calcareous or chitinous organ found in the mouth of various invertebrates and used in feeding or procuring food; as, the teeth of a mollusk or a starfish.

To furnish with teeth.

To indent; to jag; as, to tooth a saw.

Hard bonelike structures in the jaws of vertebrates; used for biting and chewing or for attack and defense

Something resembling the tooth of an animal

Toothlike structure in invertebrates found in the mouth or alimentary canal or on a shell

A means of enforcement;

One of a number of uniform projections on a gear