halfwidth

See also: half-width

English

A Korean command prompt in Microsoft Windows, showing halfwidth and fullwidth characters.

Alternative forms

• half-width

Etymology

half +‎ width

Adjective

halfwidth (not comparable)

1. (computing, typography) Of a text character, occupying the space of half of a fullwidth character, or one "normal" text column.
   • 1993, GO Corporation, Penpoint Application Writing Guide:

     This would convert any half-width katakana characters to full-width katakana.

   • 1998, Rick Jelliffe, The XML & SGML Cookbook:

     ...and half-width (zenkaku, hankaku) alphabets are regarded as separate...

   • 2002, Cay S Horstmann, Gary Cornell, Core Java 2:

     The half-width characters have normal character spacing...

Usage notes

• Chiefly relevant to CJK monospace fonts, where alphanumeric characters are normally halfwidth and Asian characters (Chinese characters, kana, etc.) are normally fullwidth. However, there are designated halfwidth kana and fullwidth alphanumeric characters that may appear in any CJK font, monospace or proportional, and Chinese characters are almost always "fullwidth".

Translations

occupying half the width of a fullwidth character

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 半角 (zh) (bànjiǎo)

• Finnish: puolilevyinen
• French: demi-chasse (fr) f
• Italian: a metà larghezza
• Japanese: 半角 (ja) (はんかく, hankaku)
• Korean: 반각 (ko) (ban'gak)
• Russian: полушири́нный (poluširínnyj)

Noun

halfwidth (plural halfwidths)

1. (chemistry) The width of a spectroscopic peak at half its height.