Meanings
- InternethumorousuncountablemediaImproper kerning.
When done correctly, kerning helps to improve the readability of text by adding or removing space between two letters. Bad kerning, also known as keming, leads to misreadings, and in the worst cases, incredibly bad (but humorous) misunderstandings.
2018 April 20, jkohorst, “FR E SH A VOCA DO^([sic])”, in Writing for Designers^([dead link])
Origin
Coined by various sources in the early 1990s as a deliberate misspelling of kerning by combining the r and n into an m, as an example of improper kerning due to the increasing growth of desktop publishing.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
keming. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/keming
“keming.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/keming. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “keming,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/keming.
Source: keming on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.