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• monotype
  monotype

  noun

  the only print made from a metal or glass plate on which a picture is painted in oil color, printing ink, or the like.
• Monotype
  Monotype

  a brand of machine for setting and casting type, consisting of a separate keyboard for producing a paper tape containing holes in a coded pattern so that when this tape is fed into the casting unit each code evokes a unique letter cast from hot metal by a special matrix.

monotype

¹ American  

[mon-uh-tahyp] / ˈmɒn əˌtaɪp /

noun

1. the only print made from a metal or glass plate on which a picture is painted in oil color, printing ink, or the like.

2. the method of producing such a print.

3. Biology. the only type of its group, as a single species constituting a genus.

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Monotype ² American  

[mon-uh-tahyp] / ˈmɒn əˌtaɪp /

Printing, Trademark.

1. a brand of machine for setting and casting type, consisting of a separate keyboard for producing a paper tape containing holes in a coded pattern so that when this tape is fed into the casting unit each code evokes a unique letter cast from hot metal by a special matrix.

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Monotype ¹ British  

/ ˈmɒnəˌtaɪp /

noun

1. any of various typesetting systems, esp originally one in which each character was cast individually from hot metal

2. type produced by such a system

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monotype ² British  

/ ˈmɒnəˌtaɪp /

noun

1. a single print made from a metal or glass plate on which a picture has been painted

2. biology a monotypic genus or species

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Etymology

Origin of monotype

First recorded in 1880–85; mono- + -type

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

monotype Monotype

Commercial air travel as we know it is too entrenched and settling down ever deeper into a sheer monotype: twin-engine airliners, small-to-medium size, geared to worldwide productivity.

From Slate ● Jun. 17, 2019

“From the Heart,” a monotype of a ruddy-colored, long-haired female figure charging across a void, is downright exuberant.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 10, 2017

Among the standouts is a Susan Goldman monotype in which a flowerlike circular form is overlaid with nine squares of bright hues.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 29, 2016

Matisse’s small monotype portraits from World War I stand out as “carved” with a few clean, deft needle-fine lines.

From New York Times ● Jul. 15, 2010

The linotype, the invention of Ottmar Mergenthaler of Baltimore, came first; then the monotype of Tolbert Lanston, a native of Ohio.

From The Age of Invention : a chronicle of mechanical conquest by Holland Thompson

The high cost of the books reflects an astonishing input of labor: Monotype casters form letters, numbers and symbols from lead alloy heated to 680 degrees Fahrenheit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

Zhou had recently returned home to Shanghai from M.I.T., where a chance encounter with an American Monotype machine had spurred him to create a Chinese version.

From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2022

Monotype, an American firm founded in 1887, is the industry’s biggest.

From Economist ● Jun. 26, 2014

By the late 1980s the personal computer had begun to loosen the hold that big European font houses such as Linotype and Monotype had on the market.

From BusinessWeek ● Apr. 8, 2014

Walbaum type was revived in England, first by the Curwen Press, then by the Monotype Corporation in 1933.

From An Autobiography by Igor Stravinsky

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