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Pencil vs Biro - What's the difference?

pencil | biro |

As nouns the difference between pencil and biro

is that pencil is (obsolete) a paintbrush while biro is bureau.

As a verb pencil

is to write something using a pencil.

pencil

English

(wikipedia pencil)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) A paintbrush.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.0:
  • But living art may not least part expresse, / Nor life-resembling pencill it can paynt.
  • *, II.17:
  • *:why is it not lawfull for every man to pourtray himself with his pen, as it was for him to doe it with a pensell ?
  • Writing utensil that uses graphite (commonly referred to as lead). Regular pencils usually have a graphite shaft surrounded by wood. Also available in a mechanical version where the graphite length can be adjusted and sharpening is not needed.
  • (geometry) A family of geometric objects with a common property, such as the set of lines that pass through a given point in a projective plane.
  • (optics) An aggregate or collection of rays of light, especially when diverging from, or converging to, a point.
  • * 1863 , The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal
  • When, by the pencil becoming oblique to the surface, the vergency produced on the pencil becomes changed, the primary and secondary focal points, V and H, separate
  • (medicine, archaic) A small medicated bougie.
  • Derived terms

    * carpenter's pencil * china pencil * color pencil, colored pencil, coloring pencil * colour pencil, coloured pencil, colouring pencil * golf pencil * grease pencil * lead pencil * mechanical pencil * * pencil crayon * pencil lead * pencil pusher * pencil sharpener * pencil skirt * pencil stub * propelling pencil * wax pencil

    Verb

  • to write something using a pencil
  • I penciled''' (''BrEn:'' '''pencilled ) it in my notebook.

    Derived terms

    * pencil in

    biro

    English

    (wikipedia biro)

    Noun

    (biros)
  • A BIRO brand ballpoint pen.
  • * 1993 , , 2008, unnumbered page,
  • Frank's Biro taps delicately at the topmost of the little yellow notes.
  • (by extension, UK, AU, NZ) Any ballpoint pen.
  • * 2007 , , The Anatomy of Wings , page 250,
  • Massimo's finger was poised above red on his multi-coloured biro like a kangaroo frozen in headlights.
  • (by extension) Ink from a ballpoint pen.
  • * 2011 , Shannon Lush, Jennifer Fleming, Completely Spotless , unnumbered page,
  • ‘My very creative 2-year-old son used my good friend?s white polyester Roman blinds as a canvas,’ says Jacqui. They?re now covered in blue biro'. And although my friend isn?t too bothered by the ' biro , I am! Can you help??