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Sword vs Pen - What's the difference?

sword | pen |

As nouns the difference between sword and pen

is that sword is a long-bladed weapon having a handle and sometimes a hilt and designed to stab, hew, or slice while pen is an enclosed area used to contain domesticated animals, especially sheep or cattle.

As a verb pen is

to enclose in a pen.

sword

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (weaponry) A long-bladed weapon having a handle and sometimes a hilt and designed to stab, hew, or slice.
  • * 1591 , William Shakespeare, Henry VI , Part III, Act II, Scene II, line 59.
  • Unsheathe your sword and dub him presently.
  • * 1786 , Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons , page 49.
  • Some swords were also made solely to thrust, and some only to cut; others were equally adapted for both.
  • Someone paid to handle a sword.
  • (tarot) A suit in the minor arcana in tarot.
  • (tarot) A card of this suit.
  • (weaving) One of the end bars by which the lay of a hand loom is suspended.
  • Derived terms

    * bastardsword * broadsword * double-edged sword * fall on one’s sword * longsword * pork sword * put to the sword * samurai sword * short sword * sword bayonet * swordbill * sword cane * swordcraft * sword dance * sword fern * swordfish * sword grass * sword knot * sword lily * sword of Damocles * swordbearer, sword-bearer * swordbearing, sword-bearing * swordplay * swordsman * swordsmanship * swordstick * sword-swallower

    Coordinate terms

    * (weaponry) bayonet, claymore, cutlass, epee, , falchion, foil, katana, knife, machete, rapier, sabre, saber, scimitar, vorpal, yataghan, yatagan

    Anagrams

    * words 1000 English basic words

    pen

    English

    (wikipedia pen)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) . More at pin. Sense “prison” originally figurative extension to enclosure for persons (1845), later influenced by

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An enclosed area used to contain domesticated animals, especially sheep or cattle.
  • There are two steers in the third pen .
  • A place to confine a person; a prison cell.
  • They caught him with a stolen horse, and he wound up in the pen again.
  • (baseball) The bullpen.
  • Two righties are up in the pen .

    Verb

  • To enclose in a pen.
  • * Milton
  • Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (Modern English (m)); note the /p/ ? /f/ Germanic sound change. See feather and for more.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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 .
  • (figurative) A writer, or his style.
  • He has a sharp pen .
  • * Fuller
  • those learned pens
  • A light pen.
  • (zoology) The internal cartilage skeleton of a squid, shaped like a pen.
  • A feather, especially one of the flight feathers of a bird, angel etc.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spendser, The Faerie Queene , I.xi:
  • And eke the pennes , that did his pineons bynd, / Were like mayne-yards, with flying canuas lynd, / With which whenas him list the ayre to beat
  • (poetic) A wing.
  • (Milton)
    Derived terms
    * ball pen * ball-point pen * border pen * bull pen * cartridge pen * felt-tip pen * fountain pen * goose pen * lettering pen * pen cancellation * pen feather * pen-mate * penmanship * pen name * pen pal * pen-pusher * poison pen * you don't dip your pen in company ink

    Verb

    (penn)
  • To write (an article, a book, etc.).
  • Etymology 3

    Origin uncertain.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A female swan.
  • Etymology 4

    Shortned form of penalty

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • penalty
  • References