What is the difference between spool and reel?

Are they interchangeable? I know spool is more prevalent in America whereas reel is more common in the UK but distinguishing between them doesn't seem this straightforward because I have heard Americans say reel and someone from the UK say spool.

Which of these collocations are most natural? Why?

a garden hose reel / a garden hose spool
a roller shutter reel/ a roller shutter spool
a cable reel / cable spool
a plaster reel/ a plaster spool

Hi, and welcome to the forum.
Have you tried plugging those in Google's ngram?

Hi, I have but all in vain. That didn't help.

In America, "reel" is used for film or tape recordings. We speak of the second reel of a movie. (R2D2 from Star Wars was coined by someone during production asking in shorthand for "Reel 2 Dialog track 2."

Before cassette and 8-track tapes, people used "reel-to-reel" tape recorders.

"Reel" is also used for the device holding the fishing line on a fishing pole.

Most everything else would be a spool. A spool of thread or a spool of wire.

I don't know what you mean by a roller shutter or plaster.

SoothingDave said:

In America, "reel" is used for film or tape recordings. We speak of the second reel of a movie. (R2D2 from Star Wars was coined by someone during production asking in shorthand for "Reel 2 Dialog track 2."

Before cassette and 8-track tapes, people used "reel-to-reel" tape recorders.

"Reel" is also used for the device holding the fishing line on a fishing pole.

Most everything else would be a spool. A spool of thread or a spool of wire.

I don't know what you mean by a roller shutter or plaster.

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By plaster, I mean these sticky plasters you put on wounds.

And by roller shutter or just shutter I mean this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_shutter

I don't know a lot of opportunities to speak of roller shutters, so I can't say.

And what we call "adhesive bandages" come individually wrapped. I've never seen a roll of them.

SoothingDave said:

I don't know a lot of opportunities to speak of roller shutters, so I can't say.

And what we call "adhesive bandages" come individually wrapped. I've never seen a roll of them.

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Thanks. But if there were rolls of adhesive bandages, what would you call the thing they are wrapped around? A roll?

Idk2222 said:

Thanks. But if there were rolls of adhesive bandages, what would you call the thing they are wrapped around? A roll?

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Terminology varies across industries. For adhesive tapes, medical or household, we would refer to a "roll of tape" in BrE. I have no idea what term the manufacturer would use for the central core. When we have used the tape we just throw the cardboard centre away rather than talking about it.

Yes, a roll of tape.

A toilet roll is wrapped round a cardboard tube*.

* tube -
1) any hollow cylindrical structure

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(Collins)

We can now buy tubeless toilet rolls.



Lucky us.

Rover_KE said:

We can now buy tubeless toilet rolls.

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A deathblow to kiddy craft projects, seedling starters, and cat toys.

The future now holds a cold world of artless children, depressed kittens, and only potatoes for vegetables.

The koala looks devastated.

Rover_KE said:

The koala looks devastated.

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I think they always look like that.

SoothingDave said:

In America, "reel" is used for film or tape recordings. We speak of the second reel of a movie. (R2D2 from Star Wars was coined by someone during production asking in shorthand for "Reel 2 Dialog track 2."

Before cassette and 8-track tapes, people used "reel-to-reel" tape recorders.

"Reel" is also used for the device holding the fishing line on a fishing pole.

Most everything else would be a spool. A spool of thread or a spool of wire.

I don't know what you mean by a roller shutter or plaster.

Click to expand...

I still don't understand the difference.

Rover_KE said:

The koala looks devastated.

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See?! It's not just kittens.

Idk2222 said:

I still don't understand the difference.

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I don't think you're going to find a clear-cut definition and difference. To further confuse you, there are drums and bobbins.


Note this question has now also been posed on Stack Exchange. You got about as clear an answer as you're going to get there.

To the OP:
Please do not post the same question simultaneously to more than one forum. Doing so wastes our valuable time. Instead, post your question to one forum and wait for replies. If you're not satisfied with those replies, you can try another forum, but please indicate in your thread that you've already asked the same question elsewhere (provide a link), and outline why you were not satisfied with the answers you received.