Screw
fastener that has a thread wrapped around a cylinder
A screw is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to the head. The most common use of screws is to hold objects together and there are many forms for a variety of materials. Screws might be inserted into holes in assembled parts or a screw may form its own thread.
The screw head on one end has a slot or other feature that commonly requires a tool to transfer the twisting force. Common tools for driving screws include screwdrivers, spanners, wrenches, coins and hex keys. The head is usually larger than the body, which provides a bearing surface and keeps the screw from being driven deeper than its length; an exception being the set screw (aka grub screw). The cylindrical portion of the screw from the underside of the head to the tip is called the shank; it may be fully or partially threaded with the distance between each thread called the pitch.
Most screws are tightened by clockwise rotation, which is called a right-hand thread. Screws with a left-hand thread are used in exceptional cases, such as where the screw will be subject to counterclockwise torque, which would tend to loosen a right-hand screw. For this reason, the left-side pedal of a bicycle has a left-hand thread.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Screw” as fastener that has a thread wrapped around a cylinder. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as fastener that has a thread wrapped around a cylinder. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11022. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Screw” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.