From: "RST Engineering" on Sat 2 Jul 2005 17:10

Most of us prefer to use Webster as opposed to that monument of ignorance
called Wikopedia. In the United States version of English, a dike is used
to hold back water. A dyke is a slang term for lesbian.

Ahem...dragging down my old "Websters" [Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary, Merriam-Webster 1961], I looked under "dyke." All
it has there for a definition is "variation of 'dike.'"

Sorry, sir, your lack of both education and street smarts shows.

Well, that's how it goes...:-)

By the way, I've always had two pairs of "dikes/dykes" in my
toolbox since around 1947. Formally those are called "wire
cutters." However, I've not yet encountered anyone in an
electronics lab anywhere that did NOT know what the pronounced
familiar name was... :-)

Oh, yeah, long ago I learned that a threaded-rod fastener
was called a "screw." And its receptacle was a "nut."
In a United States high school physics class I learned that
a "screw" was one of the Basic Machines!

Ooooo...lots of jollies with words! :-)