Noun

stylus (plural styli or styluses)

1. A sharp stick used in ancient times for writing in clay tablets; a sharp tool for engraving.
2. A phonograph needle.
3. A small plastic stick used as a pen for writing on the touch sensitive screen of an electronic gadget.
4. A tool for making small dots on a piece of heavy paper, used to produce Braille writing for the blind by hand.

Derived terms

• stylograph
• stylophone

Latin

Noun

stylus (genitive stylī); m, second declension

1. Alternative form of stilus.

A stylus (plural: styli or styluses) is a writing utensil. The word is also used for a computer accessory (PDAs). It usually refers to a narrow elongated staff, similar to a modern ballpoint pen. Many styluses are heavily curved to be held more easily. Another widely-used writing tool is the stylus used by blind users in conjunction with the slate for punching out the dots in Braille.

Styluses were first used by the ancient Mesopotamians in order to write in cuneiform, Egyptians (Middle Kingdom), and the Minoans of Crete (Linear A and Cretan Hieroglyphic) made styluses in various materials: reeds that grew on the sides of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and in marshes and down to Egypt where the Egyptians used styluses from sliced reeds with sharp points; bone and metal styluses were also used. Cuneiform was entirely based on the "wedge-shaped" mark that the end of a cut reed made when pushed into a clay tablet, hence the name "cuneiform" from Latin cuneus = "wedge". The linear writings of Crete in the first half of the second millennium BC were made on sun dried clay tablets that were left to dry in order to become 'leather' hard before they were incised by the stylus. The linear nature of the writing was also dictated by the use of the stylus.

1. A sharp, pointed instrument used for writing, marking, or engraving. 2. Computer science. A pointed instrument used as an input device on a pressure-sensitive screen. 3. A phonograph (gramophone) needle. 4. A sharp, pointed tool used for cutting record grooves