kern
kern Lexical Profile
kern Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To adjust the horizontal spacing between individual pairs of characters in a piece of text to achieve a visually pleasing alignment.
"The graphic designer had to manually kern the headline because the default font spacing left an awkward gap between the 'T' and the 'o'."
• noun
A part of a metal type character that projects beyond its body or shank, resting on the shoulder of an adjacent piece.
"In traditional metal typesetting, an italic 'f' often had a kern that overlapped the next letter to save space and improve readability."
British A lightly armed medieval Irish or Scottish foot soldier.
"The chieftain's army consisted largely of heavily armed gallowglasses and nimble kerns who fought as skirmishers."
Word Nuance & Usage
In typography, 'kerning' is often confused with 'tracking'; kerning refers specifically to adjusting the space between individual pairs of characters, whereas tracking adjusts the spacing uniformly over a whole block of text.
• Rhymes for kern
Word Origin & Etymology
The typographic term likely derives from the French 'corne' (corner or horn). The historical noun referring to a soldier comes from the Middle English 'kerne', derived from the Irish 'ceithearn' meaning 'warband' or 'troop'.