noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The adjustment of the horizontal space between selected pairs of glyphs in a typeface. countable, uncountable

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of kern form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms

alpha particlebeta particlebumpkinchurlelectronelementary particle

Example

More examples

"The bad kerning on that button makes the phrase "click here" look like something much more vulgar."

Etymology

From kern (“part of a letter which extends into the space used by another letter”) + -ing, from French carne (“corner”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.