pair of compasses

English

beam compass and regular compass

Noun

pair of compasses (plural pairs of compasses)

1. 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)

  Gulf Arabic: فرجار m (firjār)

• Armenian: կարկին (hy) (karkin)
• Azerbaijani: pərgar
• Basque: konpas (eu)
• Belarusian: цыркуль m (cyrkulʹ)
• Bulgarian: перге́л m (pergél)
• 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)
• Hindi: परकार (hi) (parkār)
• 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 (ğortʹg)
• Kannada: ಕೈವಾರ (kn) (kaivāra)
• Korean: 콤파스 (kompaseu) (North Korea), 컴퍼스 (ko) (keompeoseu) (South Korea)
• Latin: circinus m
• Latvian: cirkulis (lv) m
• Lithuanian: skriestuvas (lt) m
• Macedonian: шестар m (šestar)
• Malay: jangka lukis (ms)
• Maori: tāporowhita, tuhiporowhita
• Middle English: compas
• Norwegian: passer (no) m
• Ojibwe: waawiyebii'igan
• Ottoman Turkish: پرگار (perger)
• 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)
• Thai: วงเวียน (th) (wong-wiian), กงเวียน (th) (gong-wiian) (obsolete), กางเวียน (th) (gaang-wiian) (obsolete)
• Thai: วงเวียน (th) (wong-wiian)
• Turkish: pergel (tr)
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Uzbek: sirkul (uz)
• Vietnamese: com-pa (vi)
• West Frisian: passer c

See also

• dividers