Meaning & use
line break
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Meanings
nouncountablecomputing
The point in text where one line ends and the next begins, or the character that forces text onto a new line.
Grammar: Countable: insert a line break; the text has three line breaks.
Patterns
- insert a line break
- a line break after something
Add a line break after the street name in the address.
The poem lost its shape when the line breaks disappeared.
Press Shift and Enter to insert a line break without starting a new paragraph.
nouncountablespecialist
In poetry, the place where a line ends, chosen by the poet to affect rhythm and meaning.
Grammar: Often discussed in analysis: the poet's line breaks.
The line break after 'rain' makes the sentence pause.
Students discussed how the line breaks shape the poem's rhythm.
Word forms
| plural | line breaks |
|---|
Common combinations
- insert a line break
- Insert a line break between the two names.
- remove line breaks
- I removed extra line breaks from the pasted text.
- manual line break
- A manual line break keeps the address tidy.
- HTML line break
- The HTML line break tag is br.
Synonyms and how they differ
- carriage return
- Is the older typewriter term for moving to the start of the next line.
- newline
- Is the programmer's name for the character that starts a new line.
Word family
Commonly confused: line break or page break?
line break vs page break
A page break starts a new page, while a line break only starts a new line.
Practice
You want a new line in an address without starting a new paragraph. What do you insert?
Choose one answer.
A line break moves text to the next line only. A page break would start a new page.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “line break”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.