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mechanical pencil

American  

noun

  • mechanical pencils
    plural
  1. a pencil for holding lead that can be extended by mechanical means.


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

The video equipment has improved, but even now researchers often take waterproof notes by writing on pieces of PVC pipe with a mechanical pencil.

From Science Magazine ● Aug. 24, 2022

I spent countless hours, belly on the floor, struggling with my math homework, pressing mechanical pencil to ruler.

From New York Times ● Apr. 15, 2022

He pauses and produces a mechanical pencil and a green ink pen from his pocket: “You just need this.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2021

I was drumming my mechanical pencil on the table for five minutes straight, stumped on this one problem, and barely had the stamina to continue.

From Scientific American ● Jul. 28, 2021

His penmanship was a sure indicator that he would have had a future at MIT, the minuscule mechanical pencil marks designed to maximize the amount of cryptic data a genius could record on one page.

From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen

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