Preformatted

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. Displayed or presented using a style where each character takes up the same amount of horizontal space, maintaining the exact spacing and line layout
2. Shown in a monospaced font that preserves original alignments and spacing as intended, often used to display code or text art
3. Rendered so that spacing and line breaks remain intact by using a font where all characters occupy equal width, keeping the text's original structure

Etymology: "Preformatted" is built from the prefix "pre-", meaning "before," plus "formatted," the past participle of "format." Its sense rests on the idea that the layout of a piece of text is fixed in advance, before it is displayed or printed, so the software or author has already settled the spacing and line breaks. The "format" that "formatted" comes from is itself older than computing. It derives from the Latin "formatus," meaning "shaped" or "arranged," and it was long used for a book's size and page layout in printing. Only later did the word broaden to cover the structure of digital documents, which is where the "preformatted" sense took hold, especially for blocks of text that must keep their line breaks and spacing intact.

Synonyms: preset, prearranged, prestructured, preorganized, prepared

Antonyms: unformatted, raw, unstructured, unarranged, unprepared