Orphans
An orphan is a single short line of text (often the first line of a paragraph) that appears at the bottom of a column or page, separated from the rest of the paragraph. Like widows, orphans are a typographic flaw.
In Practice
An orphan is a single line of a paragraph that falls at the top of a new column or page, separated from the rest of the paragraph. Like widows, orphans disrupt reading flow. Control orphans in CSS with the orphans property. The measure tool helps you choose a line length that naturally reduces orphaned lines by giving the text more room to flow evenly.
Common Mistakes
The common mistake with most typographic terms is applying them without considering how they interact with other settings. Type is a system: changing kerning affects tracking, changing size affects leading, changing measure affects line-height. Test changes in context rather than in isolation.
Orphans and the paragraph end
An orphan is the opposite problem: the first line of a paragraph that sits alone at the bottom of a column, separated from the rest of the paragraph that starts on the next page. It reads as an unearned blank strip and forces the reader to hunt for the continuation. The classic advice treats it as a pagination bug to fix by rewording flow, adjusting spacing, or rebalancing the column so at least two lines travel together.
On the web, orphans appear where content is sliced into fixed blocks: testimonial grids, resume sections, and cards that crop to a set height. Keep lists, paragraphs, and headings as whole units with the break-inside property where needed, and give blocks enough height that a paragraph can never strand a single first line. The glossary definition above and this page agree on which is which, which is more than many style guides manage.