Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A complete set of type of one size and face.
  • noun A basin for holding baptismal water in a church.
  • noun A receptacle for holy water; a stoup.
  • noun The oil reservoir in an oil-burning lamp.
  • noun An abundant source; a fount.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A repository for the water used in baptism; now, specifically, a basin, usually of marble or other fine stone, permanently fixed within a church, to contain the water for baptism by sprinkling or immersion: distinctively called a baptismal font.
  • noun A fount; fountain; source.
  • noun A casting; the act or process of casting; founding.
  • noun A complete assortment and just apportionment of all the characters of a particular face and size of printing-type, as required for ordinary printed work.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Print.) A complete assortment of printing type of one size, including a due proportion of all the letters in the alphabet, large and small, points, accents, and whatever else is necessary for printing with that variety of types; a fount.
  • noun A fountain; a spring; a source.
  • noun A basin or stone vessel in which water is contained for baptizing.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A receptacle in a church for holy water - especially one used in baptism
  • noun A receptacle for oil in a lamp.
  • noun figuratively spring, source, fountain
  • noun figuratively A source, wellspring, fount.
  • noun typography A set of glyphs of unified design, belonging to one typeface (e.g., Helvetica), style (e.g., italic), and weight (e.g., bold). Usually representing the letters of an alphabet and its supplementary characters.
  • noun computing A computer file containing the code used to draw and compose the glyphs of one or more typographic fonts on a computer display or printer. A font file.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a specific size and style of type within a type family
  • noun bowl for baptismal water

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French fonte, casting, from Old French (from Vulgar Latin *fundita, from Late Latin, feminine of *funditus, past participle of Latin fundere, to pour forth; see fondant) or from Old French fondre, to melt (from Latin fundere).]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English, from Late Latin fōns, font-, from Latin, fountain.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English font, from Latin fons ("fountain").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Apparently from fount, with influence from the senses above (under etymology 1).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French fonte, feminine past participle of verb fondre ("to melt").

Support

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Examples

  • Text enclosed by asterisks was in an old font (* old font*).

    With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back Edward P. Lowry

  • Gui, 6: Color, \% alertcolor\% gui, 6: font, s\%fontsize\%, \% font\% ypos: = 10 gui 6: - sysmenu yvar: = ypos+pich+10

    AutoHotkey Community 2009

  • The only bit of flash is in the prismatic foil inlayed into in the title font, which is actually quite subdued when compared to some other sets.

    Branded in the 80s! 2010

  • The only bit of flash is in the prismatic foil inlayed into in the title font, which is actually quite subdued when compared to some other sets.

    Branded in the 80s! 2010

  • The only bit of flash is in the prismatic foil inlayed into in the title font, which is actually quite subdued when compared to some other sets.

    Branded in the 80s! 2010

  • The only bit of flash is in the prismatic foil inlayed into in the title font, which is actually quite subdued when compared to some other sets.

    Branded in the 80s! 2009

  • The only bit of flash is in the prismatic foil inlayed into in the title font, which is actually quite subdued when compared to some other sets.

    Branded in the 80s! 2009

  • The only bit of flash is in the prismatic foil inlayed into in the title font, which is actually quite subdued when compared to some other sets.

    Branded in the 80s! 2009

  • The only bit of flash is in the prismatic foil inlayed into in the title font, which is actually quite subdued when compared to some other sets.

    Branded in the 80s! 2009

  • The only bit of flash is in the prismatic foil inlayed into in the title font, which is actually quite subdued when compared to some other sets.

    Branded in the 80s! 2009

Comments

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  • Holy smokes! John changed the font while I was away.

    April 2, 2008

  • "Fonts are the clothes that words wear."

    From this article at nationalpost.com.

    July 29, 2008

  • That is sooo cute! I'm totally going to use that the next time I try to pitch a font to a client!

    July 29, 2008

  • Well, dontcry? Have you had a chance to try it? How did it work out?

    October 11, 2008

  • Interesting conversational topic, fonts are.

    May 6, 2010

  • "font" in Hungarian means: weaved

    August 7, 2012