pair of compasses

English

beam compass and regular compass

Noun

pair of compasses (plural pairs of compasses)

A tool for drawing accurate circles or arches, usually consisting of two arms joined at one end in such a way that the arms can be opened and closed; one of the arms is pointed at its free end while the other holds a pencil, pencil lead or some other implement for making marks.

Usage notes

A carpenter's compass is a standard compass, but is frequently also used to scribe the irregularities of a surface onto something that will be attached to it, for a better fit, by orienting the compass perpendicular to the surface and drawing a line on the complementary piece, and moving it along the interface zone; such as when fitting a countertop to a kitchen's wall.

Synonyms

compass

Hyponyms

beam compass

Derived terms

compass (abbreviation)
beam compass

Translations

tool used to draw circles

Arabic: فِرْجَار‎ m (firjār), بِرْكَار‎ m (birkār), دَوَّارَة‎ f (dawwāra), بِيكَار‎ m (bīkār)
Armenian: կարկին (hy) (karkin)
Azerbaijani: pərgar
Basque: konpas (eu)
Belarusian: цыркуль m (cyrkulʹ)
Bulgarian: пергел m (pergel)
Catalan: compàs (ca) m
Chinese:
Cantonese: 圓規, 圆规 (jyun⁴ kwai¹)
Mandarin: 圓規／圆规 (zh) (yuánguī)
Crimean Tatar: pergel
Czech: kružítko (cs) n
Danish: passer (da) c
Dutch: passer (nl) m
Esperanto: cirkelo (eo)
Estonian: sirkel (et)
Finnish: harppi (fi)
French: compas (fr) m
Galician: compás (gl) m
Georgian: ფარგალი (pargali)
German: Zirkel (de) m
Greek: διαβήτης (el) m (diavítis)
Ancient: διαβήτης m (diabḗtēs), καρκίνος m (karkínos)
Hebrew: מחוגה‎ (he) f (mekhuga)
Hungarian: körző (hu)
Icelandic: sirkill (is) m, hringfari m
Indonesian: jangka (id)
Irish: compás m
Old Irish: gabalrind m
Italian: compasso (it)
Japanese: コンパス (ja) (konpasu)
Kalmyk: һортьг (ğortĭg)
Kannada: ಕೈವಾರ (kn) (kaivāra)
Latin: circinus m
Latvian: cirkulis m
Lithuanian: skriestuvas (lt) m
Macedonian: шестар m (šestar)
Malay: jangka lukis
Maori: tāporowhita, tuhiporowhita
Middle English: compas
Norwegian: passer (no) m
Ojibwe: waawiyebii'igan
Persian: پرگار‎ (fa) (pargâr)
Polish: cyrkiel (pl) m
Portuguese: compasso (pt) m
Romanian: compas (ro) n
Russian: ци́ркуль (ru) m (církulʹ)
Serbo-Croatian: šestar (sh) m
Slovene: šestilo (sl) n
Spanish: compás (es) m
Swahili: bikari (sw)
Swedish: passare (sv) c
Telugu: వృత్తలేఖిని (vr̥ttalēkhini)
Turkish: pergel (tr)
Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
Uzbek: sirkul (uz)
Vietnamese: com-pa (vi)
West Frisian: passer c