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magnetic needle definition

magnetic needle

a slender bar of magnetized steel which, when mounted so as to swing freely on a pivot, will point along the line of the magnetic meridian toward the magnetic poles, approximately north and south: it is the essential part of a magnetic compass

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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