needle vs stylus

needle

noun
  • A sensor for playing phonograph records, a phonograph stylus. 

  • A needle-like leaf found on some conifers. 

  • Any slender, pointed object resembling a needle, such as a pointed crystal, a sharp pinnacle of rock, an obelisk, etc. 

  • A strong beam resting on props, used as a temporary support during building repairs. 

  • A text string that is searched for within another string. (see: needle in a haystack) 

  • A fine measurement indicator on a dial or graph. 

  • A long, thin, sharp implement usually for piercing as in sewing, embroidery, acupuncture, tattooing, body piercing, medical injections, sutures, etc; or a blunt but otherwise similar implement used for forming loops or knots in crafts such as darning, knitting, tatting, etc. 

  • The death penalty carried out by lethal injection. 

  • Any of various species of damselfly of the genus Synlestes, endemic to Australia. 

verb
  • To form, or be formed, in the shape of a needle. 

  • To tease in order to provoke; to poke fun at. 

  • To pierce with a needle, especially for sewing or acupuncture. 

stylus

noun
  • A hard-pointed pen-shaped instrument for marking on stencils used in a mimeograph machine. 

  • A small implement with a pointed end used for engraving and tracing. 

  • An ancient writing implement consisting of a small rod with a pointed end for scratching letters on clay, wax-covered tablets or other surfaces, and a blunt end for obliterating them. 

  • A tool for making small dots on a piece of heavy paper, used to produce Braille writing for the blind by hand. 

  • A hard point, typically of diamond or sapphire, following a groove in a phonograph and transmitting the recorded sound for reproduction. 

  • A small device resembling a pen used to input handwritten text or drawings directly into an electronic device with a touch-sensitive screen. 

  • A pointed device formerly used to produce a groove in a record when recording sound. 

  • Synonym of style. 

How often have the words needle and stylus occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )