letter spacen.
/ˈlɛtə speɪs/, U.S. /ˈlɛdər ˌspeɪs/ A space between the letters of a word, spec. (in printing, telegraphy, etc.) an interval or blank inserted between individual characters of type. Also: a space available for or occupied by a letter.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > printed matter > arrangement or appearance of printed matter > [noun] > space left intentionally > between letters
letter space1861
letter spacing1950
1861 Rep. Joint Comm. Constr. of Submarine Telegr. Cables 73/1 If you printed the end of a word, you kept the blank key down during two intervals, the letter-space being one interval; the word-space two intervals which would have occupied the time of four currents.
1898 Stenographer Jan. 2/2 It has, in all, 56 divisions, of which 4 are for letter-spaces and 4 for figure-spaces.
1945 Trans. & Proc. Amer. Philol Assoc. 76 107 The nominative form of the name of the honored Heraklean occupied eleven letter spaces, while the accusative form..had apparently only ten letters.
1967 R. R. Karch & E. J. Buber Graphic Arts Procedures: Offset Processes iv. 125 Modification is possible to condense, expand,..letter-space and drop-out shadows in Benday screens.
1991 C. M. Goldie & R. G. E. Pinch Commication Theory i. 25 In Morse telegraphy no two consecutive letter-spaces or word-spaces are permitted.
2006 Dominion Post (Wellington, N.Z.) (Nexis) 7 Jan. 3 The idea came to him when he was working on another project, playing with the letter space between the numerals seven and four.
Derivatives
ˈletter-spaced adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > printed matter > arrangement or appearance of printed matter > [adjective] > spacing of words or letters
spaced1808
thick-spaced1824
letter-spaced1901
1901 Inland Printer May 258/2 So many letter-spaced headings are not advisable.
2008 R. Poynor J. van Toorn 110 Van Toorn angles the lowercase, letter-spaced ‘nederland’ to play against the other elements.
ˈletter spacing n.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > printed matter > arrangement or appearance of printed matter > [noun] > space left intentionally > between letters
letter space1861
letter spacing1950
1884 St. Louis (Missouri) Globe-Democrat 14 Nov. 5/7 It was Mr. Sholes..who suggested the letter-spacing device.
1950 S. C. Hlasta Printing Types 99 Due to the openness of this face, letter spacing of capital letters may be held to a minimum.
2004 L. Cabarga Logo, Font & Lettering Bible iii. 220 Careless letter spacing may impede, or divert our attention from, the act of reading.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1861