font

 

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɒnt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɑnt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒnt

From Old English font, an early borrowing from Latin fōns, fontis (“fountain”).

font (plural fonts)

1. (Christianity) A receptacle in a church for holy water, especially one used in baptism.

   Synonym: stoup

   Hyponym: baptismal font

   • 1791, Christopher Smart, “Moderation”, in Hymns for the Amusement of Children:

     Blessed be God, that, at the font, /⁠ My sponsors bound me to the call / Of Christ in England to confront / The world, the flesh, the fiend and all.

   • 1913, John Bertram Peterson, “Baptismal Font”, in Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2:

     In the Apostolic Age, as in Jewish times (John, iii, 23), baptism was administered without special fonts, at the seaside or in streams or pools of water (Acts, viii, 38); […]

2. A receptacle for oil in a lamp.

Borrowed from Middle French fonte, feminine past participle of verb fondre (“to melt”).

• fount (UK)

font (plural fonts)

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, typography, informal) A typeface.
3. (computing, typography) 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.

• → Thai: ฟอนต์ (fɔ́n)

font (third-person singular simple present fonts, present participle fonting, simple past and past participle fonted)

1. (television, colloquial, transitive) To overlay (text) on the picture.
   • 1981, William Safire, On language, page 78:

     When figures or quotes are thought helpful to understanding a spot, they're "fonted" over the cover picture.

   • 1987, The Foundation Center, Promoting issues & ideas: a guide to public relations for nonprofit organizations, page 97:

     […] character generator instead of an easel card to create letters on camera or telephone numbers that can run across the TV screen. The process is called fonting.

• “font” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Bringhurst, Robert (2002). The Elements of Typographic Style, version 2.5, pp 291–2. Vancouver, Hartley & Marks. →ISBN.

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

font (plural fonts)

1. (figuratively) A source, wellspring, fount.
   • 1824 — George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan, canto V

     A gaudy taste; for they are little skill'd in
     The arts of which these lands were once the font

   • 1910, Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, part II:

     As 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, Third State of the Union Address:

     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.

   • 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress:

     The Bible lays special stress on the fear of God as the font of wisdom.

•   font on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
•   holy water font on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
•   baptismal font on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Inherited from Latin fontem m.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈfɔn]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [ˈfɔnt]

• Audio:

  (file)

font f (plural fonts)

1. fountain
2. source (of water)
3. source (origin)
4. (journalism) source
5. (typography) font

(fountain): fontana

• codi font
• codi font obert

• fontaner
• fontaneria
• fontinyol

• “font” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “font”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “font” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “font” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• IPA^(key): /fɔ̃/, (in liaison) /fɔ̃.t‿/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔ̃

font

1. third-person plural present indicative of faire

• fonz

From Latin fundus.

font m (plural fonts)

1. bottom
2. background
3. landed property, farm
4. fund

• profont

• IPA^(key): [ˈfont]
• Hyphenation: font
• Rhymes: -ont

From German Pfund, from Latin pondo.^[1]

font (plural fontok)

1. pound (weight)
2. pound (currency unit)

   Synonym: font sterling

Borrowed from English font, from Middle French fonte, feminine past participle of fondre (“to melt”), from Latin fundō (“I melt”).^[1]

font (plural fontok)

1. (typography) digital font (set of glyphs of unified design contained in a computer file)

From the verb fon (“to spin [yarn], braid [hair], weave [basket], twist [rope], twine [arms]”) +‎ -t.

font

1. third-person singular indicative past indefinite of fon

font

1. past participle of fon

   Synonym: (in certain senses) fonott

• (measure of weight; currency): font in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
• (past participle of fon: spun, braided, woven, twisted, twined): font in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

 

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:

font

Wikipedia ^no

From Latin fons, via Old Norse fontr (sense 1), and French fonte, via English font (sense 2).

font m (definite singular fonten, indefinite plural fonter, definite plural fontene)

1. a baptismal font
2. (typography) font, or fount (UK)

• “font” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Latin fons, via Old Norse fontr (sense 1), and French fonte, via English font (sense 2).

font m (definite singular fonten, indefinite plural fontar, definite plural fontane)

1. a baptismal font
2. (typography) font, or fount (UK)

• “font” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

font m

1. Alternative form of fant

 

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

font

Wikipedia ^pl

Borrowed from English font, from Middle French fonte, feminine past participle of verb fondre (“to melt”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɔnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔnt
• Syllabification: font

font m inan

1. (computing) font (computer file containing the code used to draw and compose the glyphs)

• font in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from English font.

font n (plural fonturi)

1. (typography) font

font c

1. (typography) a font

• The synonym teckensnitt is considered more correct.

• teckensnitt