fo

Noun

folio (plural folios)

1. A leaf of a book or manuscript.
   • [Thomas] Hood also presented his treatises in such a way that conveniently accessing specific lessons was difficult, if not impossible, for the reader-practitioner. For example, his book entitled The Vse of Both the Globes, Celestiall and Terrestriall... (1592) was roughly two hundred pages long...2004, Eric H. Ash, “Secants, Sailors, and Elizabethan Manuals of Navigation”, in Power, Knowledge, and Expertise in Elizabethan England, Baltimore, Md.; London: Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN...
2. A page of a book, that is, one side of a leaf of a book.
   • Folio Page.—A page which occupies the half of a full sheet of paper, as Post-folio, Demy-folio, etc. Two pages of folio are imposed together as one form, four pages being a perfect sheet. Post-folio and Foolscap-folio, however, are more frequently imposed as four-page forms, and printed on...[1871, “Folio Page”, in J[ohn] Luther Ringwalt, editor, American Encyclopædia of Printing, Philadelphia, Pa.: Menamin & Ringwalt, 517 Minor Street; J. B. Lippincott & Co., 715 Market Street, →OCLC...
3. (broadly) A page number. The even folios are on the left-hand pages and the odd folios on the right-hand pages.
   • Folio.—The running number of the pages of a work. When there is no running title, the folio is placed in the centre of the head-line; when there is a running title, at the outside corner—the even folio on the left, the odd on the right. The preface, contents, index, and all introductory matter...[1871, “Folio”, in J[ohn] Luther Ringwalt, editor, American Encyclopædia of Printing, Philadelphia, Pa.: Menamin & Ringwalt, 517 Minor Street; J. B. Lippincott & Co., 715 Market Street, →OCLC, page...
4. (broadly) A sheet of paper folded in half.
   • This pocket copying-machine, by which letters and writings of all sizes, even folio, may be very quickly copied, consists of a press four inches long, with a small cylinder, which contains pens and ink: the whole apparatus may be conveniently carried in the pocket, and the price is very moderate.1821 April 1, “Useful Arts”, in The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Co. Conduit-Street, Hanover-Square, →OCLC, page 180
5. (broadly) A book made of sheets of paper each folded in half (two leaves or four pages to the sheet); hence, a book of the largest kind, exceeding 30 centimetres in height.
   • A rare copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio.

   Synonyms:

   F, fo, 2º

6. A wrapper for loose papers.

See all 10 meanings of folio