orphan

orphan

A word or short line at the beginning of a paragraph that is left dangling at the bottom of a column or page, separated from the rest of the paragraph by the subsequent break. The Chicago Manual of Style offers these definitions:

• A paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page/column.
• A word, part of a word, or very short line that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph. Orphans result in too much white space between paragraphs or at the bottom of a page.

Contrast with widow.