stylus

noun

sty·lus | \ ˈstī-ləs

plural styli\ ˈstī(-ə)-ˌlī

\ also styluses\ ˈstī-lə-səz

Definition of stylus

: an instrument for writing, marking, or incising: such as

a : an instrument used by the ancients in writing on clay or waxed tablets

b : a hard-pointed pen-shaped instrument for marking on stencils used in a reproducing machine

c(1) : needle sense 3c

(2) : a cutting tool used to produce an original record groove during disc recording

d : a pen-shaped pointing device used for entering data (such as positional information from a graphics tablet) into a computer

Examples of stylus in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

While the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro does ship with a Samsung Active Pen stylus, there doesn’t seem to be any built-in holster to store it in, unlike the related Samsung Notebook 9 Pen laptop. — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, "Samsung's stylish Notebook 9 Pro adds Intel's Whiskey Lake CPU and Thunderbolt ports," 7 Jan. 2019 The first is the Note-iest thing about it—the S Pen stylus. — David Pierce, WSJ, "Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 Is Crazy Powerful. Can You Handle It?," 19 Aug. 2018 Samsung’s latest Galaxy Note 9 has a nifty new feature: for the first time, the S Pen stylus has Bluetooth and can be charged instantly using a supercapacitor. — Angela Chen, The Verge, "Supercapacitors power the Note 9 stylus — but are they ready to replace batteries?," 17 Aug. 2018 Its biggest update is compatibility with the company’s Apple Pencil stylus, allowing users to digitally write and draw on the screen. — Don Reisinger, Fortune, "Apple Unveils Updated iPad Touted for Students As a Possible New Apple Watch Looms," 31 Mar. 2018 Prior to the iPhone, touchscreen smartphones used soft plastic on top of their displays, which was suitable for a stylus, but terrible for finger touch interactions. — Shannon Liao, The Verge, "Why your brand-new smartphone will scratch just as easily as your old one," 19 Oct. 2018 The Surface Pen stylus is no longer included by default, and new keyboard covers are more expensive than ever. — Cnet.com, The Seattle Times, "Best tablets of 2018 (so far)," 24 Sep. 2018 The new iPads also have full support for Pencil, Apple's digital stylus, so any app built for iPad Pro that uses the Pencil can be run without hiccups on the new iPads. — Michael Calore, WIRED, "Apple Adds Pencil Support to Cheapest iPads, Debuts New Education Software," 27 Mar. 2018 The service, which is freely available to teachers, will also use Apple Pencil, a stylus, so students can draw and sketch on iPads. — Don Reisinger, Fortune, "Apple Education Event Puts the Focus on Students and Teachers," 27 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'stylus.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.