movable type

American  

noun

Printing.

1. type from which text is printed directly in which each character is on a separate piece of metal.

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Etymology

Origin of movable type

First recorded in 1760–70

Example Sentences

And a form of movable type appeared in China as early as the 11th century, though it’s unclear whether Gutenberg would have known of it, Fletcher said.

From New York Times • Jan. 17, 2024

Curated by Smithsonian conservators and preservation experts, the exhibition focuses on the art of hand-press bookmaking spanning from the invention of movable type in the 1400s to the 19th century, when bookbinding was mechanized.

From Washington Post • Dec. 3, 2022

What a book is has certainly changed over time, as clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, parchment and quills have given way to codexes, movable type, mechanized printing processes and e-readers.

From New York Times • Dec. 2, 2022

That innovation, known as movable type, made it viable to print not just a single page of text, but to simply rearrange the letters to print subsequent pages.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2020

Of those advances—in paper, movable type, metallurgy, presses, inks, and scripts—paper and the idea of movable type reached Europe from China.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond