English

Noun

monoline ‎(plural monolines)

1. (business) A company operating in only one industry or line of business; often specifically a bank specializing in credit card issuance.
   • 2005, David Sparks Evans and Richard Schmalensee, Paying with Plastic, ISBN 026255058X, page 216:

     The other leading monolines in 2002 were Capital One and Providian.

2. (finance) An insurer specialized in insuring investment-grade securities against loss.
   • 2005, Charles Austin Stone and Anne Zissu, The Securitization Markets Handbook, ISBN 1576601382, page 283:

     The premium charged by the monoline is not for funding expected losses, as with insurance, but for enhancing an investment-grade security to a AAA level.

3. (calligraphy) A font line of consistent width, as occurs when imitating pencil script.
   • 1984, Margaret Shepherd, Calligraphy Now, page 31:

     […] monolines appear everywhere in the art of the Western letter, and have shaped the alphabet's development as much as the edged line of the broad pen.

4. (aquaculture) A length of monofilament line, used for culturing forms of seaweed.
   • 1982, Jose Rodolfo Lim, Farming the Ocean (the Genu Story), page 73:

     A module consists of 21 monolines; a monoline on the other hand is 20 feet (6 m) long and consists of a nylon line plus 3 stakes— 2 at both ends and one at the middle— and 30 plants.

5. (printing, dated) A type of composing machine in which each line of type is cast as a single slug.
   • 1993, Rae Frances, The Politics of Work: Gender and Labour in Victoria 1880-1939, ISBN 0521457726, page 126:

     With the straight matter being set on the linotype or monoline, the hand compositor was left with what he claimed was the most 'skilled' part of his old work.

6. (spectroscopy) A single spectrum line.
   • 2007, V.A. Shabashov et al., “Deformation-induced transformations in nitride layers formed in bcc iron”, in Materials Science and Engineering: A, volume 452, DOI:10.1016/j.msea.2006.11.071, pages 575-583:

     The spectrum of the MS sample also includes the central broad singlet of the nitrous austenite, which is simulated as the superposition of a monoline and a doublet.

Related terms

• monorail
• monotype
• multiline