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 7 of 21: from “exobiology” to “gafiate”.
- exobiology noun The branch of biology dealing with exolife: (putative or predicted) extraterrestrial lifeforms (those originating from planets other than…
- exord noun A preface or prefatory passage.
- exposition noun An essay or speech in which any topic is discussed in detail.
- extended adj Wider than usual.
- extradimensional adj Originating outside the known physical reality of the universe.
- extragalactic adj Originating outside of the local galaxy.
- extralight adj Lighter than a typical light typeface.
- eye noun The enclosed counter (“negative space”) of the lower-case letter e.
- f noun Folio, paper and book size (10"-12.5" x 15"-20")
- fabulation noun A style of modern fiction, similar to magical realism and postmodernism.
- fac noun A factotum letter, or a similar kind of ornamentally bordered letter formerly used at the start of a chapter or section of a book.
- face noun A typeface.
- fachan noun A giant in Irish and Scottish folklore, which has one central leg, one hand protruding from its chest, and one eye.
- faction noun A form of literature, film etc., that treats real people or events as if they were fiction; a mix of fact and fiction.
- factotum noun A large decorative printing block with a central space into which any letter can be inserted, used to mark the beginning of a chapter of a…
- fafiate noun A science fiction fan who has become inactive in the fandom community due to other obligations.
- fairy dance noun A dance performed by fairies, especially one in which humans are enticed only to find that when released years or centuries have passed.
- fairy dust noun A magical powder that would give the power of flight to whoever it was sprinkled on.
- fairy money noun Money given by the fairies, which later transforms into withered leaves or similar.
- fairy ring noun A place where fairies congregate in a ring, particularly in order to dance.
- fall out verb To fall off due to the quoins holding it in place having become wet and therefore loose.
- false scent noun A misleading expectation created by ambiguous writing.
- fantastique noun A genre of literature and film that is characterized by the intrusion of the supernatural into the realistic framework of a story.
- fantasy noun The literary genre generally dealing with themes of magic and the supernatural, imaginary worlds and creatures, etc.
- farmer's daughter noun A stock character or stereotype of a desirable but naïve young woman who is the daughter of a farmer.
- farspeak verb To engage in long-distance communication by magic or telepathy.
- farspeaker noun One who farspeaks.
- fascicle noun A discrete section of a book issued or published separately, generally as a temporary measure while the work is in progress.
- fat adj Of a character which enables the compositor to make large wages; said of matter containing blank, cuts, or many leads, etc.
- fatface noun A very bold typeface.
- feelie noun A proposed future entertainment, akin to a film/movie, where the audience can physically feel what happens to the characters.
- fembot noun A robot in female or feminine form.
- Ferdinandian adj Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Ferdinand.
- fey noun A fairy.
- feyness noun A ghost resembling a living person, seeing which is an omen of that person's death.
- fiction noun Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose.
- fictography noun A fictionalized biography; a biography written about a fictional character. For example, Gulliver's Travels written by Jonathan Swift but…
- fiery-tongued adj That breathes fire; fire-breathing.
- fighter noun A starfighter
- figure space noun In fonts whose digits are of uniform width, a space of non-variable width: ⊣ ⊢ equal to the width of a digit.
- final order cutoff noun The latest date that retailers can submit their finalized orders before publishers set up their print runs. Orders submitted before this…
- finisher noun Synonym of inker.
- fireball verb To attack (someone or something) with balls of fire.
- first contact noun The first meeting between humans and extraterrestrials.
- first reader noun A book for children who are learning to read, usually consisting of pictures and some basic words or phrases.
- flashback noun A dramatic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological flow of a narrative.
- flat adj Lacking in depth, substance, or believability; underdeveloped; one-dimensional.
- flatplan noun A page plan of a publication that shows how the articles and advertisements are laid out.
- fleshling noun A creature made of flesh; a human being.
- fleuron noun A decorative typographic element, used to separate passages or simply for decoration. Often doubled, e.g. 🙚 🙘 or 🙘🙚, or combined with other…
- flitter noun A small aircraft or spacecraft.
- float verb To cause (an element within a document) to float above or beside others.
- flower noun Ornamental type used chiefly for borders around pages, cards, etc.
- flush adj Ellipsis of flush left and right: a body of text aligned with both its left and right margins.
- flux capacitor noun A fictional instrument required to operate a time machine, consisting of a rectangular-shaped compartment with three flashing…
- fly noun The person who took the printed sheets from the press.
- flyboy noun A man employed to clear the printed copies from the printing press.
- flying rowan noun A rowan tree growing parasitically on another tree, or from a wall, roof, etc., once believed in Scandinavia to have magical powers.
- flying saucer noun An alien interplanetary vessel, typically disc-shaped and of metallic construction.
- flying white noun A kind of calligraphic technique that involves applying a relatively dry brush at high speed to create dry, streaky strokes.
- FOC noun Initialism of final order cutoff.
- foil noun In literature, theatre/theater, etc., a character who helps emphasize the traits of the main character and who usually acts as an opponent…
- foliation noun The process of forming into pages; pagination.
- folio noun A page number. The even folios are on the left-hand pages and the odd folios on the right-hand pages.
- fondu noun The graded shift from one color into another.
- font noun In metal typesetting, a set of type sorts in one size.
- font name noun Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see font, name: the name of a font (typeface).
- fool noun A stock character typified by unintelligence, naïveté or lucklessness, usually as a form of comic relief; often used as a source of insight…
- foot noun The bottommost part of a typed or printed page.
- foot stick noun A bevelled piece of furniture placed against the foot of the page, to hold the type in place.
- footstick noun A sloped or beveled piece of wood or metal placed against the foot of a page that is being typeset, and locked in place by quoins.
- force noun A metaphysical and ubiquitous power from the fictional Star Wars universe created by George Lucas. See usage note.
- force field noun An invisible barrier used as a protective shield.
- forced justified adj The alignment of all lines of text, regardless of length, where they stretch across from margin to margin.
- forgetty noun A person whose memory has been erased or damaged.
- form noun The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
- formalism noun An approach to interpretation and/or evaluation focused on the (usually linguistic) structure of a literary work rather than on the…
- fourteener noun A (usually iambic) line of fourteen syllables.
- foxboy noun A male fictional character who has a fox's ears, tail, or other fox-like characteristics on an otherwise humanoid body.
- foxgirl noun A female fictional character who has a fox's ears, tail, or other fox-like characteristics on an otherwise humanoid body.
- foxing noun The discoloration of printed material with brown marks.
- fragmentism noun An Italian literary movement, from the period just before the First World War, characterised by the use of short pieces of dramatic prose…
- fraktur noun A style of black letter type, used especially in German-speaking countries from the 16th century until World War II.
- free indirect speech noun The literary device of writing a character's first-person thoughts in the voice of the third-person narrator.
- free-hanging adj Not run in; on a separate line (or multiple separate lines) defined by hard returns.
- freewrite verb To write continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic.
- French spacing noun The archaic practice (though still current in French) of inserting a space around colons, semicolons, question marks and exclamation marks…
- friar noun A white or pale patch on a printed page caused by poor inking.
- frigate noun A warship or space warship, inspired by one of the many historic varieties of frigate.
- frontispiece noun An illustration that is on the page before the title page of a book, a section of one, or a magazine.
- frontlist noun A list of the most recent books available from a publisher, as opposed to the backlist of older titles.
- fudge box noun A mechanical contrivance into which linotype slugs containing late-breaking news are clamped.
- full out adj Extending across the full width of a page or column, without indentation.
- full point noun full stop, period (British printers' term)
- fulldive noun Virtual reality technology that inputs sensory data directly into a user's brain (especially when the brain may also act upon the…
- fullwidth adj Of a text character, occupying the space of two alphanumeric characters in a monospace font, or two "normal" text columns.
- furniture noun The pieces of wood or metal put around pages of type to make proper margins and fill the spaces between the pages and the chase.
- fusion noun The act of two characters merging into one, typically more powerful, being; or the merged being itself.
- future history noun Future events perceived or analyzed chronologically, as compared to history.
- gafiate noun A science fiction fan who has become inactive in the fandom community.