font

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A basin for holding baptismal water in a church.
2. n. A receptacle for holy water; a stoup.
3. n. The oil reservoir in an oil-burning lamp.
4. n. An abundant source; a fount: She was a font of wisdom and good sense.
5. n. Printing A complete set of type of one size and face.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A repository for the water used in baptism; now, specifically, a basin, usually of marble or other fine stone, permanently fixed within a church, to contain the water for baptism by sprinkling or immersion: distinctively called a baptismal font. Ritually, its proper position is near the entrance of the church, but it is very commonly placed near the chancel. In the early ages of the church the font was placed in a separate building or chapel called the baptistery; and this usage has maintained itself in some regions, notably in Italy. By the eleventh century it had become customary to locate the font within the main church edifice. The earliest medieval fonts were of considerable size, as it was then the practice to administer the rite by immersion. They were usually of massive stone or marble, and even the oldest surviving examples are, as a rule, richly sculptured. See baptistery.
2. n. A fount; fountain; source.
3. n. A casting; the act or process of casting; founding.
4. n. A complete assortment and just apportionment of all the characters of a particular face and size of printing-type, as required for ordinary printed work. The ordinary font of 500 pounds of Roman and Italic type for book- or newspaper-work in the English language is divided in about the following proportions: small or lower-case letters, 265 pounds; capital letters, 37 pounds; small-capital letters, 17 pounds; figures, 14 pounds; points and references, 20 pounds; braces, dashes, fractions, etc., 12 pounds; spaces and quadrats, 99 pounds; Italic letters, 36 pounds. For other languages than English different apportionments are necessary.

Wiktionary

1. n. A receptacle in a church for holy water - especially one used in baptism
2. n. A receptacle for oil in a lamp.
3. n. figuratively spring, source, fountain
4. n. typography A set of glyphs of unified design, belonging to one typeface (e.g., Helvetica), style (e.g., italic), and weight (e.g., bold). Usually representing the letters of an alphabet and its supplementary characters.
5. n. computing A computer file containing the code used to draw and compose the glyphs of one or more typographic fonts on a computer display or printer. A font file.
6. n. figuratively A source, wellspring, fount.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Print.) A complete assortment of printing type of one size, including a due proportion of all the letters in the alphabet, large and small, points, accents, and whatever else is necessary for printing with that variety of types; a fount.
2. n. A fountain; a spring; a source.
3. n. A basin or stone vessel in which water is contained for baptizing.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a specific size and style of type within a type family
2. n. bowl for baptismal water