This page gathers the 2,094 dictionary entries belonging to the domain “Publishing”, as labelled by Wiktionary. Each word leads to its full entry: definitions, etymology, pronunciation, examples. Page 2 of 21: from “artificial intelligence” to “blackface”.
- artificial intelligence noun An intelligent, self-aware computer or computer program.
- ascender noun The portion of a lowercase letter that extends above the midline.
- ascent noun The ascender height in a typeface.
- ASCIIfy verb To reduce extended Latin text to characters of the ASCII character set.
- Asclepiad noun A choriambic verse consisting of four metrical feet: a spondee, two choriambi, and an iambus. First used by the ancient Greek poet…
- Ashtadiggaja noun the eight eminent poets at the court of Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara Empire
- ass noun A compositor.
- asteroidian noun One who is from or lives on an asteroid.
- astonisher noun An exclamation mark, the punctuation mark “!”.
- astronavigation noun Navigation through space
- astrophilosophy noun The study of alien philosophy.
- astroscope noun A telescope powerful enough to see astronomical bodies.
- astrotechnology noun Space technology.
- atompunk noun A subgenre of speculative fiction, based on the society and technology of the Atomic Age (c. 1945–1969).
- aubade noun A poem or song evoking or greeting the dawn or early morning.
- audience surrogate noun A character who serves to express the questions and confusion of the audience, such as a detective's assistant who asks for clarification…
- Augustan adj Pertaining to the Roman poetic literature during this time.
- author mill noun A publisher that relies on producing large numbers of small-run books by different authors, as opposed to a smaller number of works…
- autodestruct verb To destroy itself by design (as of a mechanical system).
- autofire noun A feature that allows a weapon to fire automatically.
- auton noun A machine or robot, usually in the form of a living being, designed to follow a precise sequence of instructions.
- avant-texte noun The study of a written work by analyzing the process of composition, including prior manuscripts, rough drafts, etc.
- axhandle hound noun A folkloric dog-like animal with a somewhat ax-shaped body, supposed to subsist on a diet of the handles of axes left unattended.
- B-story noun A subplot that appears in a screenplay or script for a movie or television show; a subplot that concerns the side-characters or less…
- back noun The inside margin of a page.
- back gray noun A piece of dark, heavy cotton cloth that is run under another piece of cloth to be printed, serving to take up the color on the roller…
- back of the book noun Less important or less hard-hitting material relegated to the later pages of a print publication or the later stages of a television…
- back up verb To run a printing press in reverse.
- backbench noun A group of top-level journalists who jointly review submissions and decide on the layout and emphasis of the newspaper.
- backfill noun Material in a story set earlier in the past, providing history or context for the current action.
- backlist noun A list of older books available from a publisher, as opposed to the frontlist of more recent titles.
- backprime noun The ⟨‵⟩ or ⟨`⟩ symbol; a reversed prime.
- backtick noun The symbol `, resembling a reversed quotation mark and also being, or being homoglyphic to (depending on mental model), a grave accent mark…
- bad adj Vulgar, obscene, or blasphemous.
- bagatelle noun A short piece of literature or of instrumental music, typically light or playful in character.
- baihe noun A narrative or visual work featuring a romantic or sexual relationship between women; yuri.
- baka adj Stupid, silly.
- ball noun A leather-covered cushion, fastened to a handle called a ballstock; formerly used by printers for inking the form, then superseded by the…
- ball-tailed cat noun A fictional animal said to resemble a mountain lion, but with a long tail ending in a solid ball with which it strikes its prey.
- ballade noun A poem of one or more triplets of seven- or eight-line stanzas, each ending with the same line as refrain, and usually an envoi; more…
- band printer noun A type of impact line printer in which a metal band, etched with character shapes and timing marks, moves horizontally across the print…
- bang out verb To celebrate (a fellow printing or newspaper industry worker) to mark their completion of an apprenticeship or their retirement by…
- bank noun A kind of table used by printers.
- banshee noun A female spirit, usually taking the form of a woman whose mournful wailing warns of an impending death.
- bar noun Any of various lines used as punctuation or diacritics, such as the pipe ⟨|⟩, fraction bar (as in 12), and strikethrough (as in Ⱥ)…
- bara noun A genre of homoerotic media, usually also pornographic, typically created by gay men and targeted at gay men in Japan.
- baria noun An Ancient Greek pitch-marking diacritic: ⟨ ` ⟩; written atop vowels, it denotes normal or low pitch.
- baseline noun A line used as the basis for the alignment of glyphs.
- basilisk noun A mythical snake-like dragon, so venomous that even its gaze is deadly.
- basket verb To cross-collateralize the royalty advances for multiple works so that the creator is not paid until all of those works have achieved a…
- bastard adj Abbreviated, as the half title in a page preceding the full title page of a book.
- bat'leth noun A double-ended curved blade weapon with spiked protrusions, controlled by grips along its back, used by Klingons in Star Trek.
- batarang noun a bat-shaped sharp-edged boomeranglike missile weapon, primarily used by the fictional character Batman
- bathos noun A risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to
- batter noun A bruise on the face of a plate or of type in the form.
- battle station noun A space station equipped primarily for combat.
- battlecraft noun A spacecraft or other vehicle used for combat.
- battlecruiser noun A warship of intermediate size and/or capability between a heavy cruiser and a (light) battleship.
- battleship noun A starship of comparable role.
- beam verb To transmit matter or information via a high-tech wireless mechanism.
- beam up verb To teleport (someone or something) using a (fictional) device, especially from the surface of a planet to an orbiting starship.
- beamer noun A device that projects or transmits matter, information, or energy.
- beanstalk noun A space elevator.
- beard noun That part of a type which is between the shoulder of the shank and the face.
- beardline noun The line below the baseline where the descending letters, such as ⟨p⟩ or ⟨q⟩, sit.
- bearer noun A strip of reglet or other furniture to bear off the impression from a blank page.
- beat noun A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.
- beat panel noun A panel without dialog (speech bubbles or the like) and no significant visual changes to the previous panel, symbolizing passing of time.
- bed noun The flat part of the press, on which the form is laid.
- belter noun An inhabitant of an asteroid belt, especially that between Mars and Jupiter.
- BEM noun A stock character in science fiction; a grotesque creature, often an extraterrestrial, that menaces the protagonists.
- berserker noun A type of von Neumann probe whose mission is to exterminate alien lifeforms.
- beta reader noun A person who informally proofreads another person's text before the latter makes it available to the general public.
- Betelgeusian adj Relating to the star Betelgeuse or to inhabitants of the Betelgeuse system.
- Biancan adj Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Bianca.
- bibliosmia noun The pleasant smell and aroma of a new (or any) book, caused by the gradual chemical breakdown of the compounds used within the paper.
- bicameral adj Of a script or typeface: having two cases, upper case and lower case.
- bigfoot noun An individual creature of this type.
- bimeter noun A meter wherein each line has two metrical feet.
- bind rune noun A type of ligature formed by two or more runes; most commonly with two or three runes sharing one or more common vertical strokes, or with…
- biobed noun A bed equipped with biofeedback sensors for medical diagnosis.
- biokinesis noun The ability, through the use of psychic power, to affect organic matter on a microscopic level, to manipulate the physiology (e.g. heart…
- biomonitor noun A device that displays a readout of a person's vital signs.
- bion noun A cyborg or robot.
- bioneer noun A biological engineer, an engineer of creatures, especially partially artificial/mechanical ones.
- biopath noun A person with the telepathic ability to manipulate the physiology (e.g. heart rate, breathing or brainwaves) and voluntary motor functions…
- biopathy noun The psychic ability to manipulate the physiology (e.g. heart rate, breathing or brainwaves) and voluntary motor functions of other people…
- biopunk noun A science fiction genre that focuses on biotechnology and subversives.
- biorobot noun A biological organism that has been created and designed by artificial means.
- bioroid noun A cybernetic or fully biological organism created by artificial means.
- biot noun A robot composed of living components.
- bite noun A blank on the edge or corner of a page, owing to a portion of the frisket, or something else, intervening between the type and paper.
- biter noun A zombie.
- bizarro adj Pertaining to bizarro fiction.
- black adj Said of a symbol or character that is solid, filled with color.
- black knight noun A villain or evil character who masks their identity and that of their liege by not displaying heraldry.
- black lady noun A ghost of a lady in black mourning clothes.
- black letter noun A Northern European style of type based on the script, with contrasting thick-and-thin, angular strokes forming upright letterforms, and…
- black spot noun A fictional judicial device among pirates, consisting of a black circle indicating condemnation.
- blackface noun Synonym of boldface.