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Baseline

Printing
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The invisible line on which most letters rest. It helps keep lines of poetry visually even.

Detailed Definition
In typography, the baseline is the shared horizontal guide on which the main bodies of letters sit, while ascenders rise above it and descenders fall below it. Printers and typesetters use it to maintain consistent alignment across a page. In poetry, a deliberate shift from the baseline can make a word seem to drop, float, stagger, or interrupt the expected rhythm of a line, giving visual form to hesitation, emphasis, or disruption.
Example
Example in poetry:
In a sonnet, each line’s letters rest on the baseline, helping the poem’s 14 lines appear orderly; A poet may raise one word above the baseline to make it seem to float or interrupt the regular visual pattern; In concrete poetry, words that dip below the baseline can suggest falling, sinking, or instability; A proofreader checks that the lines of a poem share a consistent baseline unless variation is intentional
Additional Notes
The baseline aligns most letters and helps poets assess whether lines appear visually steady. Descenders such as g and y extend below it.
Also Known As
Base Line
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