italic

[ ih-tal-ik, ahy-tal- ]

adjective

1. designating or pertaining to a style of printing types in which the letters usually slope to the right, patterned upon a compact manuscript hand, and used for emphasis, to separate different kinds of information, etc.:

   These words are in italic type.

2. (initial capital letter) of or relating to Italy, especially ancient Italy or its tribes.

noun

1. Often italics. italic type.
2. (initial capital letter) a branch of the Indo-European family of languages, including ancient Latin, Oscan, Umbrian, and modern Romance.

Italic

¹

/ ɪˈtælɪk /

noun

1. a branch of the Indo-European family of languages that includes many of the ancient languages of Italy, such as Venetic and the Osco-Umbrian group, Latin, which displaced them, and the Romance languages

adjective

1. denoting, relating to, or belonging to this group of languages, esp the extinct ones

italic

²

/ ɪˈtælɪk /

adjective

1. AlsoItalian of, relating to, or denoting a style of handwriting with the letters slanting to the right

noun

1. See roman
   a style of printing type modelled on this, chiefly used to indicate emphasis, a foreign word, etc Compare roman 1
2. often plural italic type or print

Other Words From

• non-I·talic adjective noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of italic¹

1555–65; < Latin Italicus < Greek Italikós, equivalent to Ital ( ía ) Italy + -ikos -ic

Word History and Origins

Origin of italic¹

C16 (after an edition of Virgil (1501) printed in Venice and dedicated to Italy): from Latin Italicus of Italy, from Greek Italikos

Example Sentences

Emotions cause the brain to store memory in a stronger and more permanent fashion, set down in bold type and italics.

From Popular-Science

Note that text format (bold or italic) has semantic meaning in this volume.

From Project Gutenberg

Still another abhors dashes or colons, or quotation marks, and yet another will not have Italic type used in his work.

From Project Gutenberg

Pervenerunt ad nos propositiones qudam Italic satis Lutheran.

From Project Gutenberg

Quirinus, kwi-rī′nus, n. an Italic divinity identified with the deified Romulus.

From Project Gutenberg

At the north pole is an hour circle bearing the inscription “Index Hor: Italic.”

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• font