Widows and orphans

For other uses, see Masonic Widows and Orphans Home, Widow-and-orphan stock, Widow (disambiguation), and Orphan (disambiguation).
The very short final line of a paragraph composed of a single word (highlighted blue) is a runt.

The first line of a paragraph beginning at the end of a page (highlighted green) is called an orphan (sometimes called a widow).

The last line of a paragraph continuing on to a new page (highlighted yellow) is a widow (sometimes called an orphan).

In typesetting, widows and orphans are single lines of text from a paragraph that dangle at either the beginning or end of a block of text, or form a very short final line at the end of a paragraph.[1] When split across pages, they occur at either the head or foot of a page (or column), unaccompanied by additional lines from the same paragraph. The pairing of the two terms with their definitions has no consistent standard across the industry; some sources use the opposite meanings as others. Additionally, a runt, which varying sources also call a widow or orphan, is a very short ending to a paragraph occupying only a small portion of its own line.

  1. ^ Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, Vancouver, Hartley & Marks, 2004, p. 43-44, 3rd ed.