  thumb|a widowed line: the last line of a paragraph, all alone on the other side of a page break. at the end of the first paragraph, the word "lorem" is an orphan in the second sense: a very short final line that, because the rest of its line is white, creates an impression of two lines of whitespace between the paragraphs. in typesetting, widows and orphans are words or short lines at the beginning or end of a paragraph, which are left dangling at the top or bottom of a column, separated from the rest of the paragraph. there is some disagreement about the definitions of widow and orphan; what one source calls a widow another calls an orphan.carter, rob a widowed line, highlighted in yellow. day, ben. meggs, philip. typographic design: form and communication 2nd ed. john wiley & sons: 1993. p. 263chicago manual of style the chicago manual of style uses these&nbsp;definitions: ;widow: *a paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page/column, thus separated from the rest of the&nbsp;text. ;orphan: *a paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a&nbsp;page/column. *a word, part of a word, or very short line that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph. orphans result in too much white space between paragraphs or at the bottom of a&nbsp;page. == remembering the terms == a common mnemonic is "an orphan has no past; a widow has no future"bringhurst, robert. the elements of typographic style. 3rd ed. hartley and marks publishers: 2004. pp. 43-44 isbn 0-88179-206-3 or "an orphan is left behind, whereas a widow must go on&nbsp;alone". another way to think is that orphaned lines appear at the "birth" (start) of paragraphs; widowed lines appear at the "death" (end) of&nbsp;paragraphs. alternately, here's one more mnemonic device: "an orphan is alone from the beginning; a widow is alone at the end." == guidelines == writing guides, such as the chicago manual of style, generally suggest that a manuscript should have no widows and orphans even if the result of avoiding them is additional space at the bottom of a page or column.chicago manual of style, 3.11 overall appearance: "a page should not begin with the last line of a paragraph unless it is full measure and should not end with the first line of a new paragraph." however, in its 16th edition (2011) the chicago manual of style suggests a new convention in which pages may end with the first line of a new paragraph.chicago manual of style, 16th edition, 2.113: "a page should not begin with the last line of a paragraph unless it is full measu
Typography