Bar, rod and stick

[CSHY]

Bar, rod and stick

What are the differences between them when refering to long thin objects of wood, metal or glass etc ?

 

[5jj]

Bar is not normally used for wood or glass.
Stick is normally used only of wood.

That's a start.

 

[emsr2d2]

Bar, rod and stick

What are the differences between them when referring to long thin objects of wood, metal or glass etc?

What definitions have you found by looking up those three words in a selection of good English dictionaries?

 

[CSHY]

What definitions have you found by looking up those three words in a selection of good English dictionaries?

I use Oxford Learner's and some others. Dictionaries do not always make things crystal clear.

I have the impression as follows:
bar: long, thick, heavy, cubic and manmade, usually fixed up into something.
rod: short, thick, usually as tools.
stick: general name for things that people can hold in hands, natutral or manmade, fairly long, rather straight and detached or semidetached.

Please correct the images wherever wrong.

 

[emsr2d2]

Please correct the images wherever wrong.

What images?

 

[CSHY]

aq squat

What images?

Mental images of bar, rod and stick.

 

[tedmc]

The terms have also to do with the cross sections. The cross section of a bar is rectangular, whereas that of a rod and a stick is round.

 

[emsr2d2]

The cross section of a bar is rectangular,

That's not the case. Take, for example, the high bar, parallel bars and asymmetric bars used in gymnastics. They're all round. The pull-up bar I briefly (and ill-advisedly) had in my doorway at home was round.

 

[Skrej]

You won't find one single neat definition that always applies, because the terms are used differently for different materials.

For example with metal stock, a bar can be both round, square or rectangular, but has only rough tolerances. Rod had been precision ground to within very narrow tolerances, and is circular in cross section.

With glass, we generally only refer to rods.

We use the term 'curtain rod' to describe hangers that vary widely in terms of size and diameter, yet they're all lumped under 'rod'. However, they all do conform to a relatively limited number of standardized lengths.

Arc welding uses a metal wire coated in flux most of which are around 1/8" diameter, give or take a few sixteenths. You see the terms both 'stick' and 'rod' used for those expendable electrodes.

With wood, we generally only use 'stick', although the thick wooden beams used to block doors are sometimes called 'bars', hence the term 'bar the door'. 'Dowels' are round wood shafts of different diameters and lengths. With wood, 'stick' also signifies it's naturally occurring, but such is not the case with a stick of welding wire.

I don't recommend you bother yourself too much with these definitions, because they vary so much and aren't always consistent. Also, it's difficult to imagine a situation where accidentally using the 'wrong' term is going to impede comprehension. You might get a strange look if you start talking about a 'curtain stick', but context is going to rapidly clarify what you mean, and at worse someone might correct you.

So many of these usages are more a matter of learning common collocations, rather than memorizing strict definitions.