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Pile vs Beam - What's the difference?

pile | beam | Synonyms |

Pile is a synonym of beam.


As nouns the difference between pile and beam

is that pile is diligence while beam is any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.

As a verb beam is

(ambitransitive) to emit beams of light; shine; radiate.

pile

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) . Cognate with Dutch pijl, German Pfeil.

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) A dart; an arrow.
  • The head of an arrow or spear.
  • A large stake, or piece of pointed timber, steel etc., driven into the earth or sea-bed for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1719
    • , edition=10th edition , year_published=1864 , author= , title= , chapter= , section=Chapter VI citation , page=68 , passage=All this time I worked very hard [...] and it is scarce credible what inexpressible labour everything was done with, especially the bringing piles out of the woods and driving them into the ground; for I made them much bigger than I needed to have done.}}
  • (heraldiccharge) One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
    • Derived terms
    * pile bridge * pile cap * pile driver * pile dwelling * pile engine * pile plank * pneumatic pile * screw pile

    Verb

    (pil)
  • To drive s into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.

    • Etymology 2

    Apparently from pilus.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (usually in plural) A hemorrhoid.

    • Etymology 3

    From (etyl) pile, (pille), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1889
    • , author= , title= , volume_plain=Book II: The Fall of Harmachis , section=Chapter XI citation , isbn=1555211224 , page= , passage=I climbed through, and, standing on a pile of stones, lifted and dragged Cleopatra after me.}}
  • (figuratively, informal) A group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.
    • When we were looking for a new housemate, we put the nice woman on the "maybe" pile''', and the annoying guy on the "no" '''pile .
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
    • , date=December 29 , author=Keith Jackson , title=SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0 , work=Daily Record citation , page= , passage=And the moment it thumped into the net, Celtic’s march back to the top of the SPL pile also seemed unstoppable.}}
  • A mass formed in layers.
    • a pile of shot
  • A funeral pile; a pyre.
    • (Dryden)
  • A large building, or mass of buildings.
  • * Dryden
    • The pile o'erlooked the town and drew the fight.
  • * 1817 , (Walter Scott), Rob Roy , II.2:
    • The pile is of a gloomy and massive, rather than of an elegant, style of Gothic architecture
  • * Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved
    • It was dark when the four-wheeled cab wherein he had brought Avice from the station stood at the entrance to the pile of flats of which Pierston occupied one floor
  • A bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be worked over into bars or other shapes by rolling or hammering at a welding heat; a fagot.
  • A vertical series of alternate disks of two dissimilar metals, as copper and zinc, laid up with disks of cloth or paper moistened with acid water between them, for producing a current of electricity; — commonly called Volta’s pile, voltaic pile, or galvanic pile.
  • (obsolete) The reverse (or tails) of a coin.
  • (figuratively) A list or league
  • * '>citation
    • Watch Harlequins train and you get some idea of why they are back on top of the pile going into Saturday's rerun of last season's grand final against Leicester.
    Synonyms
    * See also

    Verb

    (pil)
  • To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate; to amass; — often with up; as, to pile up wood.
  • To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • To add something to a great number.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 28, author=Owen Phillips, work=BBC
    • , title= Sunderland 0-2 Blackpool , passage=But as the second half wore on, Sunderland piled forward at every opportunity and their relentless pressure looked certain to be rewarded in the closing stages. }}
  • (of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
  • (military) To place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.

    • Related terms

    * funeral pile * pile bridge * pile driver * pile cap * pile on * pile up

    Etymology 4

    Partly from (etyl) pil (a variant of peil, .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Hair, especially when very fine or short; the fine underfur of certain animals. (Formerly countable, now treated as a collective singular.)
  • The raised hairs, loops or strands of a fabric; the nap of a cloth.
  • * (William Cowper)
    • Velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile .

    Anagrams

    * English terms with multiple etymologies ----

    beam

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.
  • One of the principal horizontal timbers of a building; one of the transverse members of a ship's frame on which the decks are laid - supported at the sides by knees in wooden ships and by stringers in steel ones.
  • (nautical) The maximum width of a vessel
    • This ship has more beam than that one.
  • The crossbar of a mechanical balance, from the ends of which the scales are suspended.
  • *(rfdate) (Alexander Pope)
    • The doubtful beam long nods from side to side.
  • The principal stem of the antler of a deer.
  • (literary) The pole of a carriage.(rfc-sense)
  • *
  • (textiles) A cylinder of wood, making part of a loom, on which weavers wind the warp before weaving and the cylinder on which the cloth is rolled, as it is woven.
  • The straight part or shank of an anchor.
  • The central bar of a plow, to which the handles and colter are secured, and to the end of which are attached the oxen or horses that draw it.
  • In steam engines, a heavy iron lever having an oscillating motion on a central axis, one end of which is connected with the piston rod from which it receives motion, and the other with the crank of the wheel shaft.
  • A ray or collection of approximatelyly parallel rays emitted from the sun or other luminous body
    • a beam of light
    a beam of energy
  • * (rfdate) Shakespeare
    • How far that little candle throws his beams !
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
    • , date=September 22 , author=Nick Collins , title=Speed of light 'broken' by scientists , work=Daily Telegraph citation , page= , passage=A total of 15,000 beams of neutrinos were fired over a period of 3 years from CERN towards Gran Sassoin Italy, 730km (500 miles) away, where they were picked up by giant detectors. }}
  • (figuratively) A ray; a gleam
    • a beam of hope, or of comfort
  • * (rfdate) Keble
    • Mercy with her genial beam .
  • One of the long feathers in the wing of a hawk.
  • (music) A horizontal bar which connects the stems of two or more notes to group them and to indicate metric value.
  • An elevated rectangular dirt pile used to cheaply build an elevated portion of a railway.

    • Synonyms

    * (nautical) breadth * (heavy iron lever) working beam, walking beam * (sense, hawk's feather) beam feather * see also

    Hyponyms

    * (textiles) fore beam, back beam

    Derived terms

    (Derived terms) * abeam * balance beam * beam reach * beam splitter * beam-ends * beamer * beamish * beamline * beamy * bond beam * crossbeam * moonbeam * sunbeam * broad across the beam * broad in the beam * chemical beam epitaxy * high-beam * laser beam * molecular beam epitaxy * particle beam * tractor beam

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (ambitransitive) To emit beams of light; shine; radiate.
    • to beam forth light
  • (figuratively) To smile broadly or especially cheerfully.
  • To furnish or supply with beams; give the appearance of beams to.
  • (science fiction) To transmit matter or information via a high-tech wireless mechanism.
    • Beam me up, Scotty; there's no intelligent life down here.
  • (currying) To stretch on a beam, as a hide.
  • (weaving) To put on a beam, as a chain or web.
  • (music) To connect (musical notes) with a beam, or thick line, in music notation.

    • Anagrams

    * ----