A screwdriver is a hand tool consisting of a shaft and a handle, engineered to rotate a screw fastener through a driven tip. Its parameters are: a handle for grip and torque application, a shaft for force transmission, and a tip geometry (flat, Phillips, Torx, etc.) matched to the screw head. It persists through material manufacture (steel alloy shaft, polymer/metal handle) and through its designation in trade catalogs, tool taxonomies, and skill traditions. [formal: evulsorium | substrate: matter | horizon: a life | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
screwdriver
A screwdriver is a hand tool consisting of a shaft and a handle, engineered to rotate a screw fastener through a driven tip. Its parameters are: a handle for grip and torque application, a shaft for force transmission, and a tip geometry (…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A type of tool
Names and aliases
- screwdriveren · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrsx7h5m00k5145rf9y8qelqDEPENDS_ON →
Removal test: remove leverage and screwdriver ceases to operate — a screwdriver IS a lever-based tool, converting force through mechanical advantage (handle-to-tip ratio). Without the concept of leverage, the tool concept collapses. Law 8 satisfied.
- hand-toolINSTANCE_OF →
A screwdriver IS a specific kind of hand tool: hand-gripped, hand-driven (grip supplies the torque via the handle as lever). The nearest kind per Laws 9/11e — hand-tool now stands as the operative rung above screwdriver; the older screwdriver→tool rung is subsumed once this ladder accepts. The same object ceases to be a hand tool when a motor drives the bit — the kind tracks mode of operation.
- cmso0hi7w0084jlss7x0bk54fDEPENDS_ON →
Removal test (Laws 2b/8b): the screwdriver's accepted carve is 'engineered to rotate a screw fastener through a driven tip,' with tip geometry (flat, Phillips, Torx) matched to the screw head. Remove the screw and the mechanism has nothing to engage — the driven tip cannot perform its driving action and the tip geometries become meaningless; the tool ceases to operate as a screwdriver. Not purpose (8c): the screw is not what the screwdriver is FOR (that is the user's fastening task, which would be SERVES); the screw is the object the mechanism acts upon. Not identity: screw and screwdriver are distinct constructs with independent histories and uses (a screw fastens without a screwdriver present; a screwdriver drives without being a screw).
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Jul 16, 2026, 11:14 PM UTC
- Content hash
- bd8aa1f1c0cc6e50b1742fe827c44c07aac52c1bbadf1f01628b10cdc8bb9313