Plural of ascender; letters that extend upward beyond the standard height; people or things that climb or rise.
Regular plural of 'ascender.' The typographic meaning became standardized in printing and typography jargon as mechanical typesetting was developed.
Fonts without ascenders or descenders are called 'monoline' fonts and historically were more common—the rise of digital fonts showed that ascenders and descenders actually make reading faster by giving words more distinctive shapes!
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