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Glite Dictionary
hair space

hair space

9.9
A very thin space used in printed text between letters or words
  • noun
  • /hɛr speɪs/
  • Specialized
translation icon : espacio de pelo
  • The typographer adjusted the text to include a hair space for better readability.

Examples

  • Old printing presses required manual placement of a hair space by the compositor.

  • I used a hair space to separate the letters in my design.

  • For precise alignment, a hair space was inserted between each letter.

  • The hair space is crucial for proper typography.

  • For precise alignment, a hair space was inserted between each letter.

  • The typographer adjusted the text to include a hair space for better readability.

  • Old printing presses required manual placement of a hair space by the compositor.

How Wide

em
  • Specialized
1 9.9
en
  • Specialized
4 9.9
hair space
  • Specialized
9.9

Surface Forms

hair space singular
hair spaces plural

Morphology

hair + space

The meaning is directly derivable from 'hair' (connoting extreme thinness or smallness, as in 'a hair's breadth') + 'space' (a typographic gap); the noun-noun compound therefore signals a very small typographic space. This compositional pattern is regular in English technical terms, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can reasonably infer the meaning even if they haven't seen the specific term before.

Etymology

Hair space may come from the simple image of a single hair next to a tiny space. Early printers used gaps about as thin as a hair to separate letters, so the term now means 'a very small space' in printing.