B

B (n: bi)

The second letter of the Latin-based script.

The second letter of the Greek-based script; Beta, or modern Veta.

The third letter of the Cyrillic-based script; Veh.

baseline (n: 'bes laIn)

A line on which letters are said to sit; usual for Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic, but optional for other scripts; e.g., Hebrew or Devanagari, which instead hang from a headline.

bicameral (adj: baI 'k& m@r @l)

Having two distinct styles of letters such as capital and small, majuscule and minuscule, upper and lowercase. Of the world's scripts, only Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Armenian are bicameral; Georgian script has a set of shapes that function similary but are not usually considered capitals; an alternative set based on historical shapes was introduced in the 20th century but was not utilized widely. (from Latin, two rooms)

binocular (adj: bIn 'Ak ju l@r)

Of the letter g, the style that has two bowls, an upper head and lower butt descending, connected by a neck. (from Latin, two eyes)

bowl (n: bol)

A usually curved, enclosed or nearly entirely closed space inside a letter, as the holes of B or g. Cf. Counter.

braces (n: 'bres Ez)

The curly parenthesis marks { and } sometimes used for mathematical equations or for editorial material.

bracket (n: 'br@ kEt)

A small connection, often curved, at the junction of two strokes or of a serif and stroke that crosses from one stroke to the other. Cf. Fillet.

The square parenthesis marks [ and ] usually used for editorial interjections to show that the information contained is not the original author's words.

branch (n: br&ntS)

The place that a stroke of a letter emerges from or joins into a stem, as in the upper left of m,n,p or the lower right of a,q,u. Generally of two extremes, smooth or angular, there are typefaces with intermediate forms of branches. Roman branchings tend to be angular, italic branchings tend to be smooth.

bullet (n: 'b@l Et)

A large dot used to mark an item on a list or as a separator of items on a line. The bullet character (• •) is larger than a period (.) or raised period dot (· ·). On US Macintoshes keyboards, bullet is Option-8.