In typography, the last line of a paragraph when it is less than one-third the width of the line, especially when it is the carry-over of a hyphenated word. Widow can also refer to one word or word part standing alone in a line of a heading or a caption. Widows are undesirable typographically, and can be eliminated by adding or deleting words to or from the previous line to either fill out the widow line or remove it entirely. Adjusting the set width or tracking of the line can also eliminate the occurrence of widows. A widow carried to the top of a new page or column is called an orphan.
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