bolding

Pluralboldings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of setting text in boldface so it appears heavier and stands out from the surrounding words.

   Careful bolding throughout the manual guides the eye to each warning.

   Overuse of bolding on a page can leave nothing actually emphasized.

   Note

   Usually a mass noun for the practice, as in too much bolding, but it can also count individual bolded stretches. Randy Allen Harris's Voice Interaction Design (2004) lists boldings beside tables, indents and typeface changes as devices of text made only for the eye. That is a reminder that bolding is purely visual emphasis, with nothing to carry it when a page is read aloud.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of bold.

   The editor is bolding important phrases throughout the draft.

   He spent the morning bolding every defined term in the report.

   Note

   A verb form that now almost always concerns type. Bold as a verb means to set text in heavier strokes, and it belongs to informal, everyday writing. The older verbs meaning to make someone daring or to grow brave are obsolete. As a gerund it takes a direct object (bolding every defined term), which the noun for the process cannot do.

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