Font

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /fÉ’nt/
• Rhymes: -É’nt
• US IPA: /fÉ‘nt/
• Rhymes: -É‘nt

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

Full definition of font

Noun

1. A receptacle in a church for holy water - especially one used in baptism
2. A receptacle for oil in a lamp.
3. (figuratively) spring, source, fountain
• 1919, Boris Sidis, :The Bible lays special stress on the fear of God as the font of wisdom.

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

Alternative forms

• fount UK

Noun

1. (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.
1. In metal typesetting, a set of type sorts in one size.
2. In phototypesetting, a set of patterns forming glyphs of any size, or the film they are stored on.
3. In digital typesetting, a set of glyphs in a single style, representing one or more alphabets or writing systems, or the computer code representing it.
2. (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.

Derived terms

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

Noun

1. (figuratively) A source, wellspring, fount.
• 1824 — George Byron, 6th Baron Byron, , canto VA gaudy taste; for they are little skill'd in
  The arts of which these lands were once the font
• 1910 — Arthur Edward Waite, , part IIAs I am not drawing here on the font of imagination to refresh that of fact and experience, I do not suggest that the Tarot set the example of expressing Secret Doctrine in pictures and that it was followed by Hermetic writers; but it is noticeable that it is perhaps the earliest example of this art.
• 1915 — Woodrow Wilson, I am interested to fix your attention on this prospect now because unless you take it within your view and permit the full significance of it to command your thought I cannot find the right light in which to set forth the particular matter that lies at the very font of my whole thought as I address you to-day.