• 11 parts
  • Checked September 2026

Parts of a Desk

A pedestal desk from the side you sit at, then a keyboard tray and an L-shaped desk.

Parts of a Desk

Name Date

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
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Write the name of each numbered part.Answer key

  1. Desktop
  2. Pedestal
  3. Center drawer
  4. Box drawer
  5. File drawer
  6. Drawer pull
  7. Kneehole
  8. Modesty panel
  9. Floor glide
  10. Keyboard tray
  11. Return

Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry. Licence: own work.

Each numbered ring is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a part is answered.

Next step Next: the parts of a drawer

All 11 parts on the diagram

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The desk 9

  1. Desktop The flat working surface. On this desk it rests on the two pedestals.
  2. Pedestal A small cabinet of stacked drawers. It holds up one end of the top. A desk with only one is a single-pedestal desk.
  3. Center drawer A shallow drawer over the kneehole, above your knees.
  4. Box drawer One of the smaller drawers of a pedestal. Here there are two above each file drawer.
  5. File drawer A deep drawer for files. Working desks often have one in at least one pedestal.
  6. Drawer pull The handle on a drawer front. A round one is a knob.
  7. Kneehole The open space between the pedestals for the sitter's knees.
  8. Modesty panel Hides the sitter's legs from anyone in front. A thin board on the far side of the desk. Cables are often fixed to it.
  9. Floor glide A small foot under each corner. Glides protect the bottom of the furniture, steady it and help when it is moved.

Keyboard tray and return 2

  1. Keyboard tray A shelf that slides out from under the desktop. It holds the keyboard.
  2. Return The shorter wing of an L-shaped desk. It sits at a right angle to the main top.

How this list was compiled: Part names checked on 2026-09-30; a name is kept only when two independent sources use it. (1) Wikipedia, text only: Desk, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desk; Pedestal desk, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestal_desk; Modesty panel, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modesty_panel (working surface, desktop, pedestals of stacked drawers, the central drawer above the knees, kneehole desks, modesty panel, keyboard tray, the L-shaped desk). (2) What's What, a Visual Glossary of the Physical World (1981), read through the Internet Archive's full-text search, https://archive.org/details/whatswhatvisualg0000brag_z6n4 (work surface or top, center drawer, box drawer, file drawer, pedestal, kneeholes, modesty panel, floor glide, return section, drawer pulls). (3) Bill Hylton, Illustrated Cabinetmaking (2008), read the same way, https://archive.org/details/illustratedcabin0000hylt (desktop, pedestals, kneehole, the shallow drawer over the kneehole, modesty panel, file drawer, wooden pull). (4) An office supply catalog, 2026, read the same way, https://archive.org/details/uline_spring-summer-2026 (file drawer, box drawer, modesty panel, slide-out keyboard tray, pedestal, desk return). (5) Clois Kicklighter, Upholstery Fundamentals (2001), read the same way, https://archive.org/details/upholsteryfundam0000kick (furniture glides). The books are in copyright and were read as search snippets, not whole pages. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no maker's product is copied and nothing is traced. Licence: own work

How it works

A pedestal desk is a flat top on two small cabinets of drawers. This drawing names the top, each kind of drawer and the space for your knees, then two parts found on other desks.

Read the full guide

The pedestal desk

The desktop rests on a pedestal at each end. Each pedestal here has two box drawers over a deep file drawer, and every drawer has a drawer pull. The center drawer sits over the kneehole, the modesty panel closes the back of it, and a floor glide stands under each corner.

Two parts of other desks

The second view shows a computer desk from the side, with its keyboard tray slid out from under the top, and an L-shaped desk from above. The shorter wing of the L is called the return.

  • A desk with one stack of drawers is a single-pedestal desk; with two, a double-pedestal desk.
  • The modesty panel is on the far side from where you sit.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a desk called?

The flat top is the desktop. The stacks of drawers under it are pedestals, the gap between them is the kneehole, and the board across the back of the gap is the modesty panel. Small feet underneath are glides.

What is the panel on the front of a desk called?

A modesty panel. It is a thin board of wood or metal fixed to the front of a desk to hide the sitter's legs from anyone facing the desk. Cables are often fixed to it as well.

What are the drawers in a desk called?

The wide shallow one in the middle is the center drawer. In a pedestal, the smaller drawers are box drawers and the deep one, for files, is the file drawer.

What is the side part of an L-shaped desk called?

The return. It is the shorter wing, joined at a right angle to the main top. When L-shaped desks became popular, the wing held the typewriter.

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