"rack and pinion" meaning in English

See rack and pinion in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: rack and pinions [plural], racks and pinions [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|s|racks and pinions}} 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. Wikidata QID: Q144004 Translations (mechanism converting rotational motion into linear): hammastanko ja hammaspyörä (Finnish), hammastanko (Finnish), Zahnstangenantrieb [masculine] (German), Tannstang [feminine] (Norwegian), zębatka [feminine] (Polish), реечная́ переда́ча (reječnajá peredáča) [feminine] (Russian), кремалье́ра (kremalʹjéra) [feminine] (Russian), zupčani prijenos s ozubnicom [masculine] (Serbo-Croatian)
    Sense id: en-rack_and_pinion-en-noun-en:Q144004 Categories (other): English coordinated pairs, English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Norwegian translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Russian translations, Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations Disambiguation of English coordinated pairs: 71 29 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 89 11 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 84 16 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 93 7 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 93 7 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 82 18 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 82 18 Disambiguation of Terms with Norwegian translations: 82 18 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 79 21 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 84 16 Disambiguation of Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations: 82 18 Disambiguation of 'mechanism converting rotational motion into linear': 91 9
  2. A type of steering that uses such a gear arrangement: Ellipsis of rack and pinion steering. Wikidata QID: Q106121071
    Sense id: en-rack_and_pinion-en-noun-en:Q106121071

Inflected forms

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    {
      "form": "rack and pinions",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "racks and pinions",
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          "_dis": "71 29",
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          "_dis": "89 11",
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          "_dis": "84 16",
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          "_dis": "93 7",
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          "_dis": "79 21",
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          "ref": "1950 November, H. P. White, “The Furka-Oberalp Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 770:",
          "text": "To sum up, the Furka-Oberalp Railway is a good example of the adaptation of the rack-and-pinion system to a main line over mountainous terrain.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
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              123,
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          "ref": "1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752:",
          "text": "The length of the Wengernalp Railway from Lauterbrunnen over the Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald or vice versa, Riggenbach rack-and-pinion operated throughout, should be a \"must\" in the itinerary of every Oberland tourist; [...].",
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          "ref": "2021 May 19, David Clough, “Swiss precision meets UK growth”, in RAIL, number 931, page 56:",
          "text": "Finally, it is the world's leading manufacturer in the rack-and-pinion rail vehicle industry.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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."
      ],
      "id": "en-rack_and_pinion-en-noun-en:Q144004",
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        [
          "gear",
          "gear"
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        [
          "teeth",
          "teeth"
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          "rotational"
        ],
        [
          "linear",
          "linear"
        ],
        [
          "steering",
          "steering"
        ],
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          "railway",
          "railway"
        ]
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "91 9",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
          "word": "hammastanko ja hammaspyörä"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "91 9",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
          "word": "hammastanko"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "91 9",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Zahnstangenantrieb"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "91 9",
          "code": "no",
          "lang": "Norwegian",
          "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Tannstang"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "91 9",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "zębatka"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "91 9",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "reječnajá peredáča",
          "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "реечная́ переда́ча"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "91 9",
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          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "kremalʹjéra",
          "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "кремалье́ра"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "91 9",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "zupčani prijenos s ozubnicom"
        }
      ],
      "wikidata": [
        "Q144004"
      ]
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          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A type of steering that uses such a gear arrangement: Ellipsis of rack and pinion steering."
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}
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          "ref": "1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752:",
          "text": "The length of the Wengernalp Railway from Lauterbrunnen over the Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald or vice versa, Riggenbach rack-and-pinion operated throughout, should be a \"must\" in the itinerary of every Oberland tourist; [...].",
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          "text": "Finally, it is the world's leading manufacturer in the rack-and-pinion rail vehicle industry.",
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        "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."
      ],
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          "gear",
          "gear"
        ],
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          "teeth",
          "teeth"
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          "linear",
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    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
      "word": "hammastanko ja hammaspyörä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
      "word": "hammastanko"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Zahnstangenantrieb"
    },
    {
      "code": "no",
      "lang": "Norwegian",
      "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Tannstang"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "zębatka"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "reječnajá peredáča",
      "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "реечная́ переда́ча"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "kremalʹjéra",
      "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "кремалье́ра"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "mechanism converting rotational motion into linear",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "zupčani prijenos s ozubnicom"
    }
  ],
  "word": "rack and pinion"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-08-02 using wiktextract (99a4ed9 and 3c020d2). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.