Word.ws English Dictionary

em quad

em quad noun: a quad which has a fixed width of 1 em.

Noun

em quad (plural em quads)

  1. A quad which has a fixed width of 1 em.
    Synonyms:
    em quadrat, m quadrat, mutton quad, quad

Synonyms of em quad

Forms of em quad

pluralem quads

Origin of em quad

Attested in 1841. From 1808 em quadrat, from 1683 m quadrat, from m + quadrat, a metal type, which is as wide as the point size of the font. The origin of the letter m is unclear; perhaps because the type body of the letter M was approximately square during the early days of typesetting, and to contrast it with the n quadrat, the letter n being approximately half as wide.

Questions about em quad

What does em quad mean?
Em quad means a quad which has a fixed width of 1 em.
What part of speech is em quad?
Em quad is a noun.
What is the plural of em quad?
The plural of em quad is em quads.

Words near em quad in the dictionary

  1. Elâzığ
  2. elæon
  3. em
  4. em dash
  5. em dashes
  6. em quad
  7. em quads
  8. em rule
  9. em space
  10. em spaces
  11. em-

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: em quad (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “em quad.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/em_quad. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.