Word.ws English Dictionary

racks and pinions

racks and pinions is the plural of rack and pinion.

Meaning of rack and pinion

Noun

rack and pinion (plural rack and pinions or racks and pinions)

  1. A pair of gears, consisting of a circular pinion that engages with the teeth of a flat bar, that converts rotational into linear motion; used in the steering mechanism of cars, and in some railways.
    • This machine transfers a heavy load via a rack and pinion.
  2. A type of steering that uses such a gear arrangement: Ellipsis of rack and pinion steering.
    • This car came with rack and pinion, disc brakes, and a turbocharger at a time when all of those things seemed like exotic luxuries.

Questions about racks and pinions

What is racks and pinions the plural of?
Racks and pinions is the plural of rack and pinion.

Words near racks and pinions in the dictionary

  1. rackoids
  2. rackoone
  3. rackrent
  4. rackrents
  5. racks
  6. racks and pinions
  7. racks and snails
  8. racks in
  9. racks off
  10. racks one's brain
  11. racks one's brains

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: racks and pinions (page history and authors); rack and pinion (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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