Pen vs. Pin — What's the Difference?

Difference Between Pen and Pin

Definitions

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.

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.

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.

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

Pen

The tapering cartilaginous internal shell of a squid.

Attach or fasten with a pin or pins

Her hair was pinned back

He pinned the badge on to his lapel

Pen

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

A sheep pen

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

Richards pinned him down until the police arrived

She was standing pinned against the door

Pen

(in the West Indies) a farm or plantation.

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

The black rook on e4 is pinned

Pen

A female swan.

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

Pen

Short for penitentiary (sense 1)

You could get twenty years in a federal pen for shooting your mouth off like that

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

Pen

Write or compose

Olivia penned award-winning poetry

A whit; a jot

Didn't care a pin about the matter.

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

A thin rod for securing the ends of fractured bones.

Pen

A ballpoint pen.

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

Pen

A fountain pen.

A cotter pin.

Pen

A pen point.

The part of a key stem entering a lock.

Pen

A penholder and its pen point.

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

Pen

A quill.

(Nautical) A belaying pin.

Pen

An instrument for writing regarded as a means of expression

"Tyranny has no enemy so formidable as the pen" (William Cobbett).

(Nautical) A thole pin.

Pen

A writer or an author

A hired pen.

An ornament fastened to clothing by means of a clasp.

Pen

A style of writing

Wrote plays with a witty pen.

A rolling pin.

Pen

A pen-shaped device containing something other than ink

An insulin pen.

A vaporizer pen.

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

Pen

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

A flagstick.

Pen

The chitinous internal shell of a squid.

See fall.

Pen

A pen shell.

Pins(Informal) The legs

Is steady on his pins.

Pen

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

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

Pen

A fenced enclosure for animals.

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

Pen

The animals kept in such an enclosure.

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

Pen

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

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

Pen

A roofed dock for submarines.

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

Pen

A female swan.

To transfix.

Pen

A penitentiary; a prison.

To place in a position of trusting dependence

He pinned his faith on an absurdity.

Pen

To write or compose

Penned a letter.

To hold fast; immobilize

He was pinned under the wreckage of the truck.

Pen

To confine in or as if in a pen.

(Sports) To win a fall from in wrestling.

Pen

An enclosure (enclosed area) used to contain domesticated animals, especially sheep or cattle.

There are two steers in the third pen.

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

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.

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

Pen

(baseball) The bullpen.

Two righties are up in the pen.

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.

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.

A small nail with a head and a sharp point.

Pen

(figurative) A writer, or their style.

He has a sharp pen.

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

Pull the pin out of the grenade before throwing it at the enemy.

Pen

(colloquial) Marks of ink left by a pen.

He's unhappy because he got pen on his new shirt.

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

Pen

A light pen.

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

Pen

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

A leg.

I'm not so good on my pins these days.

Pen

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

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

The UK standard connector for domestic mains electricity has three pins.

Pen

(poetic) A wing.

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

Pen

A female swan.

(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.

Pen

Penalty.

(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.

Pen

(transitive) To enclose in a pen.

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

Pen

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

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

The shot landed right on the pin.

Pen

A feather.

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

Pen

A wing.

(obsolete) A mood, a state of being.

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.

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

Pen

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

Caligo.

Pen

The internal shell of a squid.

A thing of small value; a trifle.

Pen

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

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

Pen

A small inclosure; as, a pen for sheep or for pigs.

My father stole two geese out of a pen.

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

Pen

A penitentiary[6]; a prison.

The tenon of a dovetail joint.

Pen

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

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

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.

(informal) A pinball machine.

I spent most of my time in the arcade playing pins.

Pen

A writing implement with a point from which ink flows

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

Pen

An enclosure for confining livestock

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

Pen

A portable enclosure in which babies may be left to play

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

Pen

A correctional institution for those convicted of major crimes

(wrestling) To pin down (someone).

He pinned his opponent on the mat.

Pen

Female swan

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

Pen

Produce a literary work;

She composed a poem

He wrote four novels

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

To pin a folder to the taskbar

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

When marshaling data, the interop marshaler can copy or pin the data being marshaled.

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

To peen.

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

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

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.

With pins of adamantAnd chains they made all fast.

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

Hence, a thing of small value; a trifle.

He . . . did not care a pin for her.

That which resembles a pin in its form or use

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

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;

Fever left him weak on his sticks

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;

The child was pinned under the fallen tree

Attach or fasten with pins

Pierce with a pin;

Pin down the butterfly

Immobilize a piece

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