: a part of a typeset letter that projects beyond its side bearings
kerned; kerning; kerns
typography
: to adjust or specify the width of the side bearings between certain pairs of adjacent characters in order to improve the appearance and legibility of composed text
manually kerning pairs of letters
a kerned font [=a font that includes kerned letter pairs]
With the spacing set up (accounting for wider letters like M and W) I started kerning. This was a massively painstaking process.—
James Barnard
James BarnardExamples of kern in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
PC Magazine, 6 May 2025
But for those who obsess about kerning, the space between letters, the view from above the tomb is not exactly an aesthetically pleasing one.
—Adeel Hassan, New York Times, 4 May 2025
An update to the Contextual Task Bar now suggests text formatting edits, including alignment, font, kerning, and size.
—PCMAG, 12 Nov. 2024
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Verb
Winner: Tie Titles and Text Premiere offers Photoshop-like control over title text formatting, with a vast number of adjustments and fonts such as kerning, leading, rotation, shadow, stroking, and tracking, just to name a few.
—PC Magazine, 6 May 2025
But for those who obsess about kerning, the space between letters, the view from above the tomb is not exactly an aesthetically pleasing one.
—Adeel Hassan, New York Times, 4 May 2025
An update to the Contextual Task Bar now suggests text formatting edits, including alignment, font, kerning, and size.
—PCMAG, 12 Nov. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Kern.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kern. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationGeographical Definition
Kern
geographical name
river 150 miles (241 kilometers) long in south central California flowing southwest into a reservoir
Biographical Definition
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share